About Her
by Marshmaro
Summary: A story about missing mail, trips to the guidance counselor, and countless 'what ifs'. "You know I really like being referred to as 'her'." She stated proudly. "Of course, you're a female." "No, I mean... it makes me sound like a significant thing of the past. It's 'her', instead of 'you'. Kinda sad that it fits me." I'M BACK FROM A HIATUS, EVERYONE! Side Character x Main Character
1. Prologue

**I'M BACK FROM YEARS OF HIATUS!**

 **Unfortunately, I wasn't able to continue the previous Haikyuu fic (using the same OCs) due to college and everything in life. Ugh. But heeeeey, i'm back. I just finished writing one-shots in Tumblr for the Voltron fandom as well because I am an avid Plance shipper (no hate pls)**

 **So yeah. Because it's been years since I last continued my previous fic, the skill level that I am at now and the plot completely disappeared from my head so here I am in another attempt to create a decent plot using the same OCs as last time.**

 **Thank you for those who supported me back then! I hope you continue the support even if i'm such a crappy writer with no sense of responsibility and goes on year-long hiatuses(?) huhuhu**

 **Let's see if we could get at least five reviews for each chapter (hopefully). I appreciate the feedback, as always!**

* * *

He swears. He just freaking swears that the number of times a wrong delivery has been made to his address has increased drastically the past two months.

His twitching glare could burn holes on the new package lying on his front porch and although he _should_ already be used to it, he still could not catch the dumbass mailman who keeps making these mistakes. He's _soooo_ going to be home the next time the delivery guy arrives. Of course, right now, he had this to deal with – along with the other countless letters and deliveries he received in the past.

Sighing in an angry fashion, he hesitantly picked the box up. He was starting to hate the mailbox and his front porch for some reason, not to mention, whoever gave the courier his home address is definitely going to get it sometime. No, he couldn't be thinking about that now. He has volleyball practice to attend to.

The angry raven-haired teenager walked back up into his house and straight into his room, double-taking for a bit while he argued with himself inside his head whether he should finally let his mother know that the mailman has, yet again, delivered it to their address. Using his right foot to close his bedroom door, he walked to a very special corner (which was already taking up so much space, damn it.) where he kept a box filled with unknown letters and random packages.

Again, he wondered if he should let his parents know, but remembers that they would probably force him to personally deliver the items to the right person and he would rather _die_ than trouble himself with literally _anything_ other than volleyball.

He was, after all, Kageyama Tobio.

And so he dumps the package along with the others and decides to pump himself up to start a new day of practice. Surely, he'd bump into a certain orange-haired dumbass along the way and he needed to prepare for any false starts.


	2. Ch 01 Clues To The Culprit

A loud slam echoed in the gym and it was such an appealing sight to see three people on the floor, all in the previous struggle of trying to receive the spike of the ace bravely. The libero, Nishinoya Yuu, jumps in excitement as he stared at the bigger person from the other side of the net – their ace, Azumane Asahi.

"Another nice kill, Asahi-san!" He jumps even higher, much to a certain orange-haired idiot's dismay. Said idiot felt pumped up; instincts telling him that this must be a challenge because how in the world could someone jump that high, perform hand-stands on the shoulders of taller people, and _still_ be a libero? Oh, right. He chose that path. Not that Hinata would ever complain, because Nishinoya looks cool in everything he does.

Unlike a certain someone.

"Hinata-dumbass! The ball got past your block, dumbass!" Oh, there he is.

Kageyama actually looks cool, as well, but to _hell_ with that, right? It's not like Hinata will ever admit that one out loud. (He actually did once.)

"What's wrong with you, Bakageyama? You seem more irritated than usual, so uncool." He pouted, causing a vein to almost pop out of Kageyama's head. "W-What? Nothing's wrong." The dark aura emanating from the Karasuno setter stated otherwise, though.

"That doesn't seem very accurate." From a distance, a tall blonde commented, adding more fuel to the fire as he passes by, earning a glare from Kageyama. Meanwhile, the captain Daichi clasped his hands hard enough for the troublemakers to hear.

"Let's not get into each other's throats now, shall we?" He said with a smile, the others immediately freezing up. "We still have practice!"

That smile meant trouble, so nobody said another word as their coach Ukai sighed and threw another ball directly above Kageyama's head. The setter reacted quickly to the sound of someone shouting "Left!" and he moved by instinct to—no, wait, not there. Nishinoya's _clearly_ waiting for the spike from Tanaka. It means…

"Azumane-san!" He shouted to the ace with pure trust that the team's power-driven weak-willed giant crow would break through the defenses of the other players.

"I-I'll block it this time!" Without a second thought, Hinata jumped impulsively with no delay, surprising everyone with his running approach as he tries to face the ace head-on. Who's the dumbass n— _ouch_.

"HINATA!"

The baby crow fell to the floor. Asahi's horrified expression mirrored Sugawara's, Tsukishima just stared, Daichi quickly ran, while Kageyama had never glared so hard before, horns would appear on his head if he does it even harder.

This wasn't the first time that Hinata had received a ball to his face, but everyone still reacts like they just killed a man.

Kageyama was definitely on fire as he walked towards the smaller idiot, about to give him a "proper" scolding, when Hinata suddenly jumped back on to his feet, making everyone's hearts jump at their throats – except Tsukishima, because it's Tsukishima.

"N-Nose…" Asahi went pale, while Nishinoya shook his shoulders madly. "You did it, Asahi-san! You finally almost killed someone with a powerful spike! Nice _kill_!"

"Is that supposed to cheer him up?" Sugawara retorted, with Ennoshita just standing in shock at Hinata, who was definitely a bit _too_ happy about getting a nosebleed from one of Asahi's spikes. "Are you okay, though?" The second-year asked unsurely.

Kageyama's eyebrow twitched. Hinata was _beaming._

"I-I finally was able to receive the ace's spikes!"

"You didn't receive it, you dumbass! You just jumped out of nowhere to his point of impact!"

The bickering started again, but it was a normal day for the flock of high school students. Soon after, the school bell will ring and everyone changed into their uniforms before attending to their respective classes for the day.

The weird quick duo walked along the busy hallways of the school; students running here and there to catch up to their homeroom period, whilst some escape to the rooftop. The stairs were littered with delinquents sitting on the steps while whistling on every foxy female that walks by, only for a passing teacher to yell at them, threatening to send them to the Vice Principal's office if they don't 'get their butts to their classes' soon. Some of the females squealed over the unholy and handsome sight that is Tsukishima Kei, the tall bespectacled blonde from earlier, completely ignoring Yamaguchi Tadashi in the dark, much to his dismay. The poor freckled boy was used to it, but Hinata and Kageyama ended up glaring hard at Tsukishima's retreating figure as he took long strides to reach his classroom; Yamaguchi tailing right behind him.

"What is so cool about Tsukishima, though? He's a jerk." Hinata muttered under his breath, quickly realizing that he was already in front of his classroom, while Kageyama's was still a little ways past his. "I'll be going, then. I'll definitely shut the ball down in afternoon practice."

"Hinata." Kageyama quickly called out before Hinata could enter his room, catching the latter's attention. Hinata stared at the taller man with a confused expression, coming up with many different possibilities as to what Kageyama was about to say to him – the likelihood of a 'you're a dumbass, so it'll take you ten years before you get to block Azumane-san's spikes' is the highest possibility.

Kageyama's hand flew to his chin. He appeared to be thinking about something, yet hesitating. "If you, for example…" He trailed off, leaving Hinata to blink innocently. "Uh, if there is, well, you woke up one day and there's mail that has your address on it, but not your name, what would you do?"

The question took Hinata aback. He definitely did not expect that possibility out of the numerous insults Kageyama could have thrown at him. "Well, I'll open it to see what's inside."

Of course, that could only be Hinata's answer. After another trail of insults about invasion of privacy and a teacher yelling at them to get into their classes _as quickly as possible_ _or else_ , Kageyama walked away to think about Hinata's answer.

Well, he _was_ a bit curious.

* * *

Kageyama was a snobby introvert.

That's what they all say, but he really did not intend to be a snob nor an introvert in his entire life. He had no idea what went wrong along the way (and he surely will never in his life admit that it may be because of his kin- obsession with volleyball) that caused him to never be able to successfully make friends. Because of that, he found it difficult to care for other people most of the time, unlike Tsukishima who _chooses_ not to care just because he can.

But all of this drama was literally just because Kageyama had been staring at the box of 'things-to-send-away-soon' for almost two hours since he got home and he _still_ can't bring himself to invade in the privacy of other people. He wants to care enough to have all the stuff sent to the rightful owner, but he also contemplated whether opening the contents of each letter and package was the right thing to do.

He caved in soon after, groaning as he took one rectangular package from the box, slowly un-wrapping the object with trembling hands. For some reason, his heart was beating louder and one could never see the usually angry setter in such an innocent, fidgety state. He was _literally_ just opening a package and he already feels as if the gods hate him.

But he, like most people, would most likely be curious as to what's inside.

The object was a beautiful, hardbound book with golden engravings that adorn its mysteriousness. To Kageyama, it was just a book. It wasn't volleyball, so there was no need to absolutely gleam in delight at the sight of the rectangular gift. Turning the book over so he could read the title, his brows furrowed.

They were English letters, and _god_ , Kageyama sucked at English. But he managed to convince himself to try, anyway.

"Wi… _Witch… craft_?" He blinked, stunned. "…For… dummies?"

Staring at the book for a few seconds, the gears in his head started turning. The letters… the box… everything had been a trap! Someone was casting a spell of misfortune on him, that's why all these objects arrived at his place! He was cursed!

But Kageyama shook his head because only a dumbass like Hinata or a nervous wreck like Yachi could think about something so ridiculous.

He flipped the book's pages rather quickly, when something caught his eye on one of the pages. Flipping the pages back a bit slower this time, he found a little piece of paper sticking out on page 34. It was a sticky note with an arrow pointing to a certain paragraph in the book and a message that says:

' _Duuuude, look. Might help you with your awful hair color lololol'_

Kageyama felt pissed for no reason. That wasn't even for him (probably), but he still got pissed because what if it actually was for him? No way, though.

His eyes darted to the paragraph to which the note was referring to: _'How to change your orange hair to any other color besides orange'._

Well, that was painfully specific.

The setter closed the book, about to return it to its usual spot in the box when it suddenly clicked in his mind. _Orange hair?_

There was at least _one_ person he knew who had orange hair.

* * *

Everyone stared long and hard at the raven-haired boy at the gym door. Spikes were missed, serves failed, and all sports balls dropped to the ground when Kageyama arrived for morning practice _later_ than everyone else. They almost thought he was dead since he _always_ arrived at least an hour earlier than morning practice. Ukai raised an eyebrow. "Care to explain?"

Kageyama stood straight, sweat pouring from his forehead after a long, dragging walk from his house to the gym. As expected, Hinata jumped right at his face enthusiastically, bright eyes staring straight into his soul. The situation pissed him off. "What'cha got there, Kageyama?"

The setter's arms were about to go numb as he clutched the small box. "This…" He said softly, almost a whisper. Everyone was starting to gather around the setter, much to Ukai and Daichi's annoyance, out of curiosity. As Kageyama and Hinata proceeded with their stare-down, what happened next was a little bit out of the norm, and strangely, still in-character.

"… Is your doing, dumbass!" And with that, Kageyama threw the box at Hinata's face angrily, assuming that everything that had been happening in his front porch was the doing of his little partner. _Probably._

"K-Kageyama! Calm down!" Yamaguchi was immediately behind the setter, restraining him from beating the crap out of Hinata. Like hungry vultures, the rest of the team picked up random stuff that fell from the box while Sugawara desperately tried to revive Hinata from his shock.

"Woah! Ryu, it's a sketchpad! There's an English letter 'H' at the corner of the cover!" Nishinoya exclaimed upon tearing down one package. Tanaka, on the other hand, found a shirt that had the words ' _No. 1 Fan'_ on it and a signature down at the hem which he did not recognize. Hinata soon got back to his feet right after, pointing accusingly at Kageyama. "What was that for!?"

"There's a pretty book here… wait, _How To Not Lose Your Calculator?_ " Asahi gazed suspiciously at the seemingly useless book. Kinoshita's left eye twitched upon picking up a pouch filled with nothing but salt.

Tsukishima smirked at the scene. "Really living up to the reputation of crows in the garbage dump, huh?" Not long after, Daichi grabbed both Nishinoya and Tanaka by the shoulders. "That's not yours! Put it down!"

Kageyama watched as each package was unwrapped, revealing various weird items and gifts to who-knows-who. "There was a note that pertained to orange hair! Don't involve me with your strange collection, dumbass!" He waved the note and the witchcraft book in front of Hinata's face, the latter immediately snatching both from him. As Hinata read the note, his eyes grew heavy with disbelief.

"These aren't for me! Stupid Kageyama! They were sent to your address, right?" The smaller boy argued back, ignoring the commotion behind him and how Daichi was now forcing every single one of them to put everything back into the box and kneel on the floor with their hands clasped to their laps. Kageyama frowned even more, if it was even possible, before retorting. "You're the only one in the entire Miyagi who has orange hair!"

"Perhaps, the sender probably knows you." Tsukishima interrupted, his fingers fiddling over an unopened letter he found on the floor. "He probably knows that the two of you are almost always seen together. Assuming that the 'orange hair' is pertaining to Hinata." He followed, ripping the top of the envelope effortlessly, obviously not caring for privacy. The letter had no name on it; just the address and Tsukishima knew that the only way to find anything else is through the content of the letter.

"T-Tsukishima has a point." Yachi, who had been standing on the side of the scene while fearfully freaking out, tried to peek into the letter. Unfortunately, Tsukishima was so tall, she couldn't even see anything. "Well, the sender probably knows only Kageyama's address or something like that."

"What's keeping you!? Get back to the court now!" Ukai finally yelled, voice booming in the gym; a warning that everyone should start getting productive or they might have to do a hundred diving receives if they barge into an issue (which, they already did) that they had nothing to do with. "And Kageyama, explain that later! We're in the middle of practice!"

"Yessir!" The weird quick duo immediately straightened. Hinata went off running back into the court while Kageyama started to do warm-ups. Soon after, they would become focused on nothing but volleyball.

Meanwhile, Yamaguchi and Yachi would stare at Tsukishima, who they had witnessed putting the letter in his jacket pocket.

* * *

"Hey, King."

The sound of that husky and irritating voice never fails to bring Kageyama to his wit's end. Causing a vein to pop out of his head is normal for other people, but for Tsukishima? One vein is never enough. He'll effortlessly bust all the trillions of nerves in Kageyama's body with just one word for all he cares.

Kageyama angrily drank up his milk from the carton he just got from the vending machine. What the hell does the blonde want now during lunch time?

"Figured I'd find you here." The blonde smirked, his hand reaching into his jacket pocket. "You seem to have forgotten this earlier."

Kageyama's eyes landed on the neatly folded paper in between Tsukishima's fingers. After a moment of realization, the note was snatched hastily and a glare was thrown towards the blonde. "You bastard."

"Easy there, King. Not even a 'thank you'? Sure got some ego going in there, even though that one letter could probably give you a big lead to your dilemma." Tsukishima's hand was in his pocket once again. Before they knew it, another familiar voice called from the window of the school building.

"Tsukki! Let's eat lunch!" Yamaguchi, unaware of what was going on, watched as Tsukishima turned his back on Kageyama with an annoyed expression. He was going to have to ask about what happened as soon as Tsukishima gets back into the building.

On another note, Kageyama unfolded the note in a messy fashion, slightly crumpling it with his tight grip as his sharp eyes took in any amount of essential information he could find.

' _Psst, have you received them? You're probably pissed at me for pulling pranks and lowkey throwing shade at you like this, lol._

 _By the way, you should have come to Shiratorizawa.'_

Kageyama dropped the milk carton. Those words… those are Ushijima Wakatoshi's, the ace of Shiratorizawa Academy's, words for…

" **OIKAWA-SAN!"**


	3. Ch 02 Victims

**I'm focusing mainly on snippets for the first chapters here, since I have yet to introduce the girls. I really want to make a fic where the POV of the main characters are more detailed than the OCs (side characters)**

 **I just like the idea of a main character and a side character to be made possible lol. Me and my excuses.**

 **Leave a review!**

* * *

"… You've got to be kidding me."

Oikawa Tooru, pretty boy and pro setter at Aoba Johsai plus Kageyama's rival senior, stared at two of the people included in his list of 'people-I-never-want-see-alive-again'. It was a good day – the sun was shining, the flowers were blooming in his presence, and the birds were singing, and for some reason, all of that beauty vanished as quickly as his hopes of beating Ushiwaka when an orange baby crow and the genius Tobio appeared right in front of the youth swimming program venue where Oikawa fetches his nephew from classes.

Hinata elbowed Kageyama. "Are you seriously expecting me to talk first?" He complained, backing away quickly when Oikawa's eyes narrowed at them. Kageyama could feel his breath freeze in his mouth, gritting his teeth in annoyance while he carried a certain box filled with useless things.

"If you think I'm going to be taking those gifts from you, you're dead wrong. Bleh! Idiot, idiot!" Oikawa stuck his tongue out, making childish expressions while he turned to walk away. Hinata and Kageyama grunted under their breaths, struggling hard to regain their composure against the Great King. Secretly, Kageyama wondered if the box really _was_ for Oikawa because of the suspicious witchcraft books and he recalled even seeing an alien magazine within the random pile of stuff.

But thinking about the notes and little letters inside… does Ushiwaka even talk like that?

"G-Great King! We were just about to give you Ushiwaka's gifts that—" Hinata shrieked when a loud sound was heard beside him. Kageyama roughly dropped the box, searching for whatever letter he could find, while both Hinata and Oikawa gawked at him, puzzled. As soon as Kageyama took out one letter, he pondered for a bit, trying to imagine Ushijima's voice while he read.

' _Dude, surprise! I'm going back to Miyagi in two months! Heard you got into a school filled with handsome young men, you sly baby kangaroo! I wonder why you didn't come to Shiratorizawa, though?'_

"… He's reading it out loud." Hinata face-palmed, while Oikawa was laughing at the side. Kageyama unconsciously read the note over and over again in a poor attempt to imitate Ushijima's voice. Sure, it's not impossible – all the letters seem to be taunting the addressee in more ways than one and Ushijima, although unintentional and in complete honesty, is an expert at riling people up to challenge him. And who knows how the guy even writes letters? Kageyama shivered at the thought of Oikawa receiving words like this from Ushijima every time they meet.

Suddenly, the note got taken from his hands, much to his surprised. He looked up at his senior, whose gaze fell upon his. "Your face has an expression that tells me you were imagining unspeakable things regarding me." The Great King commented. "I-I wasn't!" In his defense, Kageyama spoke a bit louder, although that only succeeded to confirm Oikawa's suspicions.

"Are you secretly a pervert? What were you imagining?" Hinata asked, regretting his decision when Kageyama grabbed his head so hard, he could feel his skull about to crack.

"… Tobio-chan, are you an idiot?" Oikawa asked, causing Hinata to look at him in utter shock. "Y-You just realized that now!?" Hinata asked him back, this time, receiving a kick from Kageyama accompanied with the usual insult – 'dumbass'.

"You probably just looked at the word 'Shiratorizawa', and ignored the rest of the content. You're still _ways_ below me in more ways than one, Tobio-chan." Oikawa snickered tauntingly, leaving Hinata to wonder why he said the word 'ways' twice in one sentence. The Great King must suck at vocabulary words. Kageyama opened his mouth to retort, but couldn't say anything against that because that's just exactly what he did, much to his embarrassment.

"What do you mean?" Kageyama, although he looked angry, managed to ask in a polite tone. Oikawa sighed in defeat – he was hoping he didn't need to talk longer than he intended. He had more important stuff to consider than wasting his time with the King and his shrimp. "I'm saying did you even look at the date of the letter? This was written two months ago, and Ushijima definitely had no reason to leave Miyagi two months ago."

Kageyama and Hinata looked at each other for a while with dumbfounded expressions, before screaming in realization.

"Also, can I have this alien magazine, Tobio-chan?"

* * *

The letter was written two months ago, which is to say that whoever wrote the letters, sent them all to the wrong address, and is causing all these unnecessary troubles is coming back to Miyagi. Rather, the person may have been in Miyagi all this time.

Yachi heard about it the day after Kageyama and Hinata went to visit the Great King. She could still feel shivers running down on her spine when she remembers how powerful his serves were, rubbing her arms to make sure they're still there.

"Are you okay, Hitoka? You seem pale." Her classmate asked in worry, causing Yachi to snap from her anxious thoughts as she looked at her companion with a funny smile. She had a few friends outside the volleyball club, thankfully, and girl talk was something that every high school female needed. To Yachi, it was a different life inside the classroom. "Yeah, she does. Do you need to go to the clinic?" Another classmate pressed their hands against Yachi's cheek, leaving Yachi to look like a blushing mess.

"I-I'm fine!" The blonde girl defended, waving her hands in front of her in denial to their assumptions. After saying that, a bag was placed on the chair in front of Yachi, signaling the arrival of another one of her female friends. "Good morning!" Yachi immediately greeted in an attempt to get all the attention away from her. The person she greeted laughed heartily at Yachi's flustered greeting, causing Yachi to get even more rattled. "Good morning, Yacchan! Why are you so eager to greet me today?"

"Hitoka is having those thoughts again, you guys. Let's at least help her." The one sitting beside Yachi teased, the others giggling at their adorable blonde friend's reactions. "Hey, I'm serious! You guys know how Hitoka is when she's nervous!"

Yachi tucked a stray hair strand behind her ear as she laughed alongside them. "It's nothing, really. It's just, Kageyama-kun has been receiving strange gifts these past days, and he says the sender probably got the address wrong…"

The girls all looked at one another. "What kind of gifts?" One of them asked, moving her chair closer, obviously intrigued by the gossip. "Um, let's see, I think there was a shirt that had the words _'No. 1 Fan'_ on it with a signature at the bottom… and a bunch of candies, oh, and there was a pouch with nothing inside but salt."

Again, the girls all looked at one another. This time, they all laughed, causing Yachi to blush even more. "Whoever sent those must be a total prankster. I mean, really? A pouch full of salt?" The female with pigtails, the tallest among them, stood with her hands to her stomach. "The candies seemed normal, though." The one who moved her chair closer before stated, eyes gleaming with happy tears. "Wasn't there a name on the packages and letters, though?" The one who sat in front of Yachi, a girl wearing a ponytail, asked curiously.

Yachi shook her head disappointingly. "No, there wasn't. Just that signature written with a sharpie."

"And wasn't there another address? You know, about where they came from?" Another asked. Yachi paused, trying to remember. "I don't think there was. I think the sender personally drops it in a post office instead of having the courier pick it up from their house."

"The sender must be such a private person, refusing to give their address away so easily." One of them commented.

* * *

"The person must be a girl!"

Nishinoya proudly announced in the clubroom, catching the attention of all the second-years, who were the first ones to get there before anyone else did. Tanaka, who was unbuttoning his uniform shirt clumsily, tilted his head. "Why do you think so, Noya-san?"

The libero crossed both arms confidently across his chest proudly, unmindful of how Ennoshita was looking at him with tired eyes. Meanwhile, both Kinoshita and Narita were curiously listening on in the conversation while putting on their training gear. "She had a G-clef in her signature!" Nishinoya remarked.

"He really did use the pronoun _'she'_. Such confidence." Kinoshita muttered to Narita, who silently laughed. "Ignore him. He always expects everything to be from a girl." Ennoshita sighed, defeated. Tanaka, Nishinoya's loyal supporter, brightened up as he waved his shirt around while completely topless. "That's so cool of her! Although, I gotta admit, the choices of gifts were a bit too peculiar to be sent to Kageyama! I'd send the pouch of salt to Tsukishima, if you ask me, Noya-san."

Ennoshita flinched. Did Tanaka just make a 'Saltyshima' pun?

"That's right! Also, I saw this Tokyo Tower figurine in the box, too! It looked badass." Nishinoya pointed out, unintentionally making a light bulb appear inside Ennoshita's head. "Tokyo Tower? It's probably a souvenir, then. The person must be sending the gifts from Tokyo. No wonder everything seemed strange."

Although even if the person sent it from Miyagi or anywhere else, the gifts would _still_ be strange.

"It's from a _city boy_!" Tanaka yelled with fiery passion, destroying the eardrums of everyone inside. It was then that the door opened, to which all second-years turned their heads to find Sugawara looking at them with a bewildered expression. "What are you guys up to now? I can hear Tanaka's voice meters away from here."

Asahi soon entered the clubroom after Sugawara, shooting up the adrenaline inside Nishinoya's body as the libero excitedly greeted the ace. "Send your serves to me today, Asahi-san!" He half-yelled, with Asahi holding up his own two arms in front of him to calm down the smaller boy. "D-Don't we always do that, though?" The Karasuno ace chuckled nervously. Ennoshita rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, hoping Daichi doesn't come soon so he wouldn't have to scold them over their conversation.

"I don't think we have to worry about Kageyama, though. It's not volleyball, so he probably won't make a fuss over it." Ennoshita reasoned out, surprised that Tanaka ended up just laughing at him. "Are you serious? You heard that guy sing the Jingle Bells song, right? The cocky bastard is passionate in everything he does."

Sugawara accidentally popped a button from his shirt, stifling laughter upon remembering how terribly loud and serious Kageyama was into singing. The setter probably got pissed at the fact that it was Hinata who even started the song and it somehow turned into competition triggering Kageyama's instinct to do his best. Meanwhile, Asahi was depressed in a little corner, recalling every bit of embarrassment and bullying he encountered that night. He was so done with life.

"Let's not forget Asahi-san's effortless cosplay!" Nishinoya reminded them, and Sugawara had failed to stop his laughter.

All happy thoughts stopped upon hearing someone talk from the door. "Are you guys done changing or do you need me to lock you in the clubroom for the rest of your lives?"

"Yes, captain!"

* * *

Both Hinata and Yamaguchi were hiding behind Tsukishima in fear of Kageyama's dark aura. "He looks so pissed today." Hinata shivered, tugging Tsukishima's shirt while the taller guy raised his arm a bit higher to try forcing the spiker to let go of him. "What's new? He looks like that all the time." Tsukishima nonchalantly said, successfully managing to get Hinata to let go of his clothes.

"Yeah, but apparently, he ordered something online but it never came, and now he's pissed because he kept receiving things that weren't his but failed to receive something that he, himself, actually ordered." Yamaguchi explained in detail to Tsukishima, even though he knew that the blonde obviously does not care whether the King would die or live another day.

"I'm just surprised that he knows how the internet works." Tsukishima mumbled.

Meanwhile, in the corner of the gym, Shimizu and Yachi were filling up water bottles when a ring made both girls pause from their activities. "Ah, that's my phone, can I get this call?" Yachi looked up at Shimizu, the older girl nodding in approval. Quickly, Yachi dug her phone out of her pocket, almost dropping it due to her fidgeting, while she ran a bit farther from everyone. Shimizu carried the bottles to the bench, setting them down beside Takeda, their advisor.

Takeda was strangely trembling excitedly, and this made Shimizu interested. "Takeda-sensei, is something wrong?" She asked the teacher, who looked at her while smiling. Takeda shook his head, gesturing for her not to worry.

"One of my students in class just handed me something today. She said it was for Kageyama Tobio. It seemed a package arrived to her house that rightfully belonged to him, so she approached me to have it returned. It's no big deal, really. I'm just happy that there are girls in school who knows who Kageyama Tobio is. He's getting really popular."

Not long after, as the team practiced their serves, Yachi walked in on the conversation as Shimizu asked another question. "Do you know her name?"

"Yeah, it was Ishikawa, I think."

Yachi accidentally dropped her phone.


	4. Ch 03 The Neighbor's New Dog

The three girls blinked confusingly at their nervous blonde friend, the volleyball team manager Yachi Hitoka, who was definitely more agitated than usual. It was normal for the girl to feel scared over everything. Today was no exception, but this was just plain absurd.

"You didn't do anything to her, did you?" The tallest among them whispered to the girl who was the first to witness Yachi in her current state. The latter shook her head, and even though they would ask Yachi, she would only freak out and try changing the topic in a very obvious way.

Just then, a bag was placed on the seat in front of Yachi, causing her to flinch and yelp. The other girls looked at her in surprise when the blonde stood up all of the sudden with her chair toppling over as she yelled "Good morning!" loud enough for the students in the hallways to hear.

The girl in front of hair flinched as well, looking at her with wide eyes and an anxious facial expression. "G-Good morning, Yacchan… you seem to be greeting me far too excitedly since yesterday…" Said girl bowed, feeling shivers and paranoia creeping up to her spine. Every one of them waited for Yachi to say something else, anticipating.

Yachi was shaking down to her knees, rambling inside her mind. What now? She can't just go and tell people that the issue is getting out of hand! They would be terrified! Kageyama's normal face is scary enough, what more if he was mad? More importantly, did Sensei even tell Kageyama the name of the person who received his package? Does this mean their mail gets mixed up all the time? How come none of them even bother to give back their packages to each other? And Yachi even participated in opening the packages! They are all going to get arrested!

Just when the thoughts were getting worse, the bell rang and everyone scurried back to their seats. Yachi sat back down, frustrated at herself for knowing about _all_ necessary information this whole time and not doing anything to help the people involved to fix their mess.

Then again, she wasn't even sure about it. There couldn't be just _one_ Ishikawa in the entire prefecture, right?

Their homeroom teacher walked inside the classroom, setting down her folders. "Good morning, class." She greeted, as usual. The class greeted her, as well, before she started reading the papers she was holding. "Now, let's see… Adachi?" The rollcall started like it did every day. Yachi knew that she was one of the last people to be called, which always meant that she had all the time in the world to be nervous as she was.

She remembered the first time Kageyama brought the box to practice. She had her suspicions even at that time, but she never really had the evidence to tell anyone. Now she's wondering if she should have spoken up that she knew someone who had just recently moved near Kageyama's address. The couriers of the packages must have been confused, but who was she to barge into the issue? Why didn't they just confront each other about missing mail and packages? Or maybe she didn't even _know_ that there would be any mail for her… she didn't seem like the type to check the mailbox.

"I can feel you glaring daggers at me from back there. You're scaring me, Yacchan."

Yachi was snapped out of her thoughts, not realizing that her eyes had been burning holes at the back of her friend's head. "Huh? Oh, I'm sorry. I was spacing out." She defended, her lips quivering as she tried to speak once more. As she spoke, their teacher happened to say the same thing as she did.

"Ishikawa?"

And as expected, the girl in front of Yachi; a girl with beautiful light brown hair with orange undertones tied into a ponytail, raised her hand. "Ishikawa Hirari, ma'am!"

* * *

"Are you still thinking about Kageyema's reaction from yesterday, Tsukki?"

Tsukishima grunted, feeling the urge to tell his companion to shut up while they eat lunch. "Why would you even expect me to think about that?" He raised an eyebrow, picking up a piece of beef strip from his lunch box before popping it into his mouth. Yamaguchi smiled. Just because Tsukishima doesn't care, it doesn't always mean that he never bothers to analyze things.

"Yeah, but it's suspicious, isn't it?" Yamaguchi insisted. "I mean, Kageyama received countless mails obviously addressed to someone else, while his gets lost to a different house, as well. And even though Takeda-sensei handed him over a package yesterday, he didn't even realize anything."

"So why didn't you say anything, then?" Tsukishima immediately countered, yet failing to push the topic aside. Yamaguchi was used to every side of the cold-hearted Karasuno blocker, so he remained unfazed. "I was actually surprised that you didn't say anything smart yourself, Tsukki."

Tsukishima's eyes fell on the vegetable in between his chopsticks. "I don't want to say anything without proof."

* * *

The day ended and Yachi failed to even say anything.

Yachi was in the same art class as Hirari, but all she ever did was glance back and forth from her drawing to her friend, causing Hirari to freak out even more. In the end, she never really got the chance to talk to the girl in private and ask about receiving Kageyama's mail the day before. Hinata is literally _always_ around Kageyama, so she never got the chance to do anything during practice, as well. Also, interrupting practice over something trivial didn't sound right to her at all, given that Kageyama has priorities.

Or maybe she was just making up excuses so she didn't have to be the one to get In the middle of such an awkward situation. She _could_ just be overthinking and it _could_ be just a different person. What are the odds that Kageyama's neighbor could also be studying in Karasuno?

In the end, Kageyama soon left with Hinata when practice ended, which was unusual since the two always stayed later than the others. One reason could be that the quizzes they had in class earlier must have exhausted them. Anything that involved thinking exhausted them more than volleyball ever did. That, or Hinata had spiked enough balls for today's practice, which was one extremely rare case.

The duo walked alongside the team, stopping for pork buns on their way home. Soon after, each of them separated towards different crossroads. Hinata took the mountain trail while Kageyama went on his usual road home. The night in Miyagi was peaceful as always. It was quiet and uneventful; it never failed to reassure Kageyama that his walk home would always be safe. Although uneventful, Kageyama liked it this way.

He would pass by his neighborhood soon after, remembering that there was one noisy thing every night. At first, he was surprised to even hear a random bark. Now, he's used to it to the point that the neighbor's dog would bark at him and he'd just keep walking instead of trying to challenge the puppy in a staring contest. He would pet it, but getting his fingers injured because he wanted to pet an animal through the neighbor's gate was out of the question.

When did their neighbor even get a pet? How many weeks has it been since he first saw the dog? He didn't bother to count.

As soon as Kageyama turned into a corner towards his street, a familiar bark distracted him from his walk. He glanced at the neighbor's gate, a familiar puppy wagging its tail upon seeing him. For some reason, the animal didn't bark at him out of anger anymore. It seemed more like it was happy seeing him now every time he passed by. With a brief glance, he decided to continue on to his way towards his house.

He walked into his front porch, taking one last glance at the neighbor's dog then the neighbor's house. Kageyama always believed that he probably had only been imagining it, but the house seemed different from what he remembered it to look like as a kid. Not that he ever paid attention – he wasn't really friends with the neighbor's kids. He didn't even know if the neighbor had kids. Come to think of it, do they still have the same neighbor from when he was younger?

"I'm home." Kageyama monotonously announced, not bothering to wait for an answer. He wasn't really sure if anyone else was home yet, but he always had spare keys with him in case no one was. Taking off his shoes, he started rummaging his things, looking for his keys when he heard the dog from next door start barking excitedly again. His neighbor must have arrived home, as well.

As he rummaged in his bag, he remembered the new pair of knee pads he had just received yesterday from Takeda. "Ah, crap. I forgot I had these." He mumbled to himself, taking the gear from his bag. "I'll use these tomorrow instead." And after a few more rummaging, he finally found the keys to his house. He inserted the key, when he heard a female's voice say "I'm home!" from next door. Turning the keys, he stepped in and breathed in his home's scent.

Luckily, tomorrow was a Saturday. More volleyball for him.

He tossed a few times up in the air while lying on the bed, when he heard someone announce that they were home. With that, he sighed, letting the ball drop to the floor before closing his eyes to finally rest. The night will go by quick, as usual, he knew. His dreams mostly consist of nothingness or monochromatic events – mostly his past as the lone kid who spent most of his time in an empty court than in the park or playground. On rare occasions, he would dream of colorful images. He never really remembers any of them upon waking up, so it stopped being a big deal to him whatever his dreams contained.

Morning came faster than Kageyama expected, mostly because the puppy next door started barking at around 4am. He didn't really mind – he was a morning person, after all. He always woke up before anyone else did at his home that he was used to having only sandwiches for his morning diet. It wasn't healthy enough, but he was just thankful for the rare occasions that his mother would wake up before him and cook a proper meal for her boy. He didn't really blame her for anything; he was fine either way.

Kageyama showered quickly and made two sandwiches with whatever ingredients he found in the kitchen. Unfortunately, they were out of mayonnaise, but he still had some fresh milk left in the carton for his daily dairy needs. With a glass of milk, he stepped outside into the break of dawn.

His eye twitched, his grip almost cracking the glass.

There, on the front porch, was another package.

Creases immediately appeared on his forehead and in between his eyebrows when he stepped angrily towards the small object wrapped up in plastic like it usually appeared. As he stepped closer, he heard the neighbor's dog barking from beside their lot.

He bent down to pick it up, reflexes causing him to turn his head when he saw the neighbor's gate open. A girl went out, picking up something from the mailbox with her back turned towards Kageyama. Seeing as he did not recognize her, (he didn't even bother waiting to see her face) Kageyama picked up the package with his other hand and went back inside. This time, he recalled their coach Ukai saying something and telling him that it was actually illegal to open packages and addressed to someone, so he didn't dare rip up the new arrival.

Fortunately, Takeda-sensei told him that if the package had no name on it and was delivered to _his_ address, then it was understandable if he initially thought that the packages were for him. The only reason why he didn't was because he never had anything delivered to his house for the past two months except for the knee pads. It's not like anyone would even send him gifts, as well. No one in the volleyball club or the entire Miyagi prefecture knew _his_ exact address.

Yawning, he placed the package into the legendary box before leaving. At the same time, a certain female had just recently finished sorting the mail. They both walked their separate ways, backs turned toward each other and passing each other's houses as they started their day towards different routes and different plans for the day.

The volleyball club always had a talent for fast forwarding the day until they start practicing. Everyone was busy preparing for a scheduled practice match in the afternoon. Yachi, who was running to the gym, crossed paths with Hirari, who was also running towards somewhere. Yachi had completely forgotten to ask about her friend's address as she continued to cram for the preparations to the practice match.

Hours passed, and Karasuno won 2-0 against their opponents. Luckily, both teams were able to learn from each other. Tsukishima, much to his dismay, had accidentally developed a new fan from the opposite team who kept bugging him about read-blocking and how cool he was. Yamaguchi would only chuckle at the scene, obviously so proud of how far Tsukishima has improved in such a short amount of time. Meanwhile, Hinata would get jealous and offer the first-year fan some lessons of his own.

It was already 8 o'clock when Kageyama passed by the barking dog and walked into his front yard. This time, he didn't enter immediately. Taking a glance at the neighbor's gate once again, he could hear a female's voice scold the puppy for being too loud in the middle of the night. He then entered his home, announcing his arrival, as always.

In the other house, a mother was convincing her daughter to take the other route home next time. "I heard your friend's coming back to Miyagi. Her house is alongside the other route, right? You should take that one so you could have someone walk with you next time."

Kageyama had lived in Miyagi long enough for him to memorize all the possible routes home. As a well-built male, he was pretty confident in taking the quickest route, even though there were lesser streetlights and danger could be lurking in every corner. He was never really paranoid – for some reason he didn't know, he was never a target of possible serial killers or hostage-takers. Maybe it's just his face? Did he really look that angry all the time? Not that he would complain if it was to scare danger away.

Plus, taking the other route meant going through a busy and noisy marketplace and he wasn't too fond of that idea. He liked the quiet route.

He drifted off once again into his dull dreams, the sports ball lying idle on his between his two palms this time.

Before he could even process that the next day was a Sunday, he woke up in the morning of the weekend. There was no barking dog this morning; it concerned him a little. He yawned and stretched; he even did a few arm exercises with his dumbbell before he took a nice shower. The morning seemed a bit chilly for him; he decided to wear a jacket, just in case. With that, he left the house, seeing as there were no packages for him to take inside.

He looked towards the direction opposite his usual route and found a retreating figure of a girl and a puppy on a leash, walking to the other route. He then turned around to pass by the said girl's house to walk to his usual route with hands in his pockets.

Kageyama reached a crossroad where he found Hinata running. A trigger in his instinct caused him to run faster than lightning, catching up to Hinata in no time. They ended with a draw, panting and heaving in large amounts of air, unable to complete one whole sentence without stopping to breathe.

"You… that… was a false start…" Kageyama blurted out, yet Hinata did not reply due to lack of sufficient oxygen circulating in his brain. Unluckily for Kageyama, Hinata was always the first to recover from a tired state. "So did you find the sender?" Hinata reminded.

Kageyama looked up from his tired state, still panting. "I'm looking for the addressee, dumbass. It's easier than looking for the sender when I don't even know where it's from." He straightened his posture and placed his hands behind him, trying to stretch his torso backward.

"Well, then, why don't you go ask your neighbors?" Hinata suggested, irking Kageyama. "I don't know my neighbors." The taller boy argued back while they started walking towards the direction of their destination. Today, they will be going back to Tokyo for a few practice games before the school week starts once again.

"Then make friends with them! Who knows, maybe you have the same address, after all." Hinata asserted and Kageyama swore that it was the dumbest statement Hinata had ever made since they first met.

The Karasuno team gathered inside the bus, where some of them even managed to catch a few winks before the game. They reunited with their friendly rivals, Nekoma High, both teams thrilled to be facing each other in a match like always. Kageyama always promises himself that he would finally be able to approach Kozume Kenma, the opponent's setter, nicely but only succeeds in scaring him off every single time.

There was a short break after two sets of Karasuno and Nekoma. Yachi and Shimizu handed the team some water bottles to replenish their spent fluids. Everyone went to admire the players on the other side of the net. Tsukishima was approached by Kuroo, captain of Nekoma and his blocking mentor, even though his annoyed gaze warned the Nekoma blocker not to. Kuroo didn't mind the cold stare from the first-year Karasuno middle blocker, though.

"You know, there was this girl who temporarily became a manager for us." The conversation started with Kuroo opening a topic that absolutely had nothing to do with volleyball. "She had to transfer schools, though, since she was only here in Tokyo for an application for a scholarship program. It was surprising since she was just a first-year, yet she was a pretty smart little lady. Got along really well with Kenma, too."

"I see." Tsukishima replied, pressing a towel to his neck, uninterested. "Man, you should be more interested in girls. You'll never get a girlfriend at this rate, you know." Kuroo teased, although he already expected what Tsukishima's answer would be. The blonde moved the towel to his forehead, removing his glasses with his other hand.

"I'm not trying to." Tsukishima said. Kuroo sighed in defeat. "Thought so. But anyway, I'm just telling you this because I recall that she had a friend back in Miyagi. Thought you might know each other."

Tsukishima didn't have any female friends, so he just looked at Kuroo funnily without saying another word. "Then again, maybe you don't. I think she was originally studying in Shiratorizawa, after all."

The coaches called upon their teams for a meeting, leaving the conversation open-ended. The match started and ended quick and the teams ended the day with new learnings to incorporate in their future official matches. It was an eventful weekend.

Kageyama and Hinata were forced to go home early due to Daichi refusing to let them in the gym for reasons that they could spend the rest of their Sunday resting. Like the usual set-up, Hinata would bike along the mountain path and Kageyama would walk through the quiet route home. He was usually the only one walking – only a few motorcycles and small vehicles passed through that road – but this time, there was something different.

Across the road, there was a familiar girl walking alongside him. He didn't think it weird; the night was still young compared to the other times that he went home. She was walking a bit ahead of Kageyama, so he had no idea if she ever noticed him there. Still, Kageyama failed to remember her face. Maybe he should start paying attention to his neighbors now?

He remembered what Hinata told him.

He would never just approach a girl while she is walking home alone in the middle of the night – this one was holding a baseball bat right in front of her warily. Self-defense? Kageyama just didn't want to be labeled a creep or arrested for assault. He most especially had no intention of getting on the receiving end of a baseball bat. Nevertheless, he had never seen the girl walk along this route before. His thoughts ended when they both reached home and she would greet her pet dog while Kageyama walked past her house.

The next day was a Monday. It was a pretty much normal day for Kageyama, except that he managed to have someone walking with him tonight, as well. It was 7:30pm in the streets where the lights were dim. She had a golf club instead of a baseball bat. Again, not one of them ever acknowledged the other until they reached their respective homes. Kageyama secretly wondered which was more painful to get hit by: a baseball bat or a golf club. He didn't want to know.

Soon after, it had become a norm for Kageyama as the days of the week went by – much like the puppy that had been barking at him since Day 1 when it was brought into his neighbor's house. She was always walking ahead of him, so he doesn't really know her face and he never asked for her name. She stopped bringing random self-defense weapons with her and started acting like a normal girl on her way home. Not that she wasn't normal; it was just a bit disturbing for Kageyama to see a small girl ready to beat the crap out of anyone who approaches her.

On the fourth night, she finally seemed to notice his presence when she briefly turned her head sideways to slightly take a peek at him, but she didn't seem to react to him as if he was a threat. Maybe she knew he was walking the same route all this time? None of them really minded it.

The usual happened. She would get into the gate while Kageyama would walk into his front porch. He hadn't been receiving any new mail the past days, so he assumed that the sender must have been 'back in Miyagi' or whatever one of the notes said. He had forgotten it over training.

"I'm home." He announced, not expecting anyone to be home. However, a warm feminine voice called from the kitchen after he spoke. "Welcome home, Tobio." The distant voice greeted him. It seemed his mother was home early tonight. Removing his shoes, he passed by the kitchen on the way to his bedroom.

"Oh, Tobio… about the box of packages you had been receiving…" Kageyama stopped in his tracks, stunned by his mother's words. She went into his room while he wasn't around? He wasn't really hiding anything from his family, so that was okay with him, but it still didn't make him any more comfortable. "A delivery boy came to our house earlier, apologizing for getting our addresses mixed up with someone else's. It appears there have been quite a few troubles with their outdated maps the past months. Apparently, the house next door was mistakenly registered with our address after a family moved in months ago."

Kageyama's eyes widened. He went a few steps back and bolted into the kitchen in the blink of an eye. His mother turned around to look at him in bewilderment at her son's sudden movements. They both stared at each other, waiting for one of them to say something. "T-Then, I can… I can take the box outside tomorrow?" Kageyama stuttered. It's been a while since he had said anything to his own mother.

The woman set the coffee she was drinking back on the table, before speaking. Kageyama noticed that there were piles of paperwork on the dining table. It must be work. "Yes, please do. It was kind of you to even place them all in a box, too. Just seal it, and it's good to go."

Kageyama bowed politely before heading out the kitchen and into his bedroom. He had things to fix, after all.


	5. Ch 04 Another Side Character

**The inspiration for this story is actually the fact that Haikyuu has a habit of making cute and detailed side characters even though they literally only appear once or twice in 25 episodes.**

 **So this fic is sort of like a Side Character x Main Character sort of thing, lol.**

* * *

"Kageyama seems to have forgotten about the stuff he received. He doesn't seem bothered by it anymore." Asahi commented while the three third-years walked home. Sugawara looked up at the sky, disappointed that the clouds have covered all the stars. "Kageyama prioritizes volleyball and training over everything else, so it's no surprise that he would let anything else distract him from that." The setter of the trio replied with a sigh of relief, remembering the commotion in the gym and clubroom when the dilemma first started.

Daichi grinned, feeling tired from all the training, yet satisfied with the results. "I was never really that worried. It's a trivial matter. It's not like it would change his whole life."

* * *

The whole thing probably changed his whole life.

Upon arranging the things inside the box, Kageyama was able to get a good look and a broader view on the stuff inside. It felt as though he was gaining bits and pieces of information about a person he had never met all because the couriers registered their houses in the same address. Aside from the book on witchcraft, Kageyama found quite a few interesting things to note.

There was a pair of sports socks among the clutter. The socks were red and thick; they would probably reach up to the wearer's knees or thighs. Whether it will be used for fashion or an actual sport, Kageyama didn't really have time to think. The next object that caught his attention was a stuffed animal. It was an angry-looking black bird that looked more like a round object than a bird. Kageyama had always liked black, so the object appealed to him in some way.

Just when he thought that there was nothing particularly eye-catching anymore, he found Math reviewers and more sticky notes attached to each book stating that the receiver _'should go to Shiratorizawa'_. He immediately placed all books back inside, not wanting to bother with the subject of Algebra and Statistics. He wondered what the point was of even coming to Shiratorizawa mid-year. The entrance exams were surely over.

More and more stuff told him stories about a person he never knew. There were a bunch of notes of encouragement or teasing, telling the supposed addressee to _'join a club'_ or ' _study Math'_. The receiver must be good with numbers. There were also various keychains and small figurines, leading Kageyama to think if the receiver also had a knack for collecting tiny things. A neatly-bound pair of arm warmers was also inside, with a note that says _'For morning jogging.'_ Strangely enough, there was also a dog's leash attached to the string binding the arm warmers with another note that says _'Take your dog with you, though'_. Both the sender and receiver were intriguing people, but Kageyama didn't really know any of the two, yet alone their names.

Her name.

Kageyama picked up the sketchpad from the box, thumbing through the pages carefully with his fingers. The first page was a short message telling the receiver to keep practicing traditional art, while the rest were blank.

Not wanting to rip envelopes any further, Kageyama left the unopened letters as they were inside the box. As soon as he was about to close it, he spotted a little Mikasa volleyball keychain inside, causing his heart to skip a beat. He smiled, sealing the box to ready it for tomorrow's pick-up. Standing up and stretching, he found himself peering outside his bedroom window, only to find clouds blocking the view to the stars. He retreated to his bed as soon as possible. Tomorrow, everything will be back to normal.

At least, that's what he thought when he went to get some shut-eye.

As soon as he woke up, took a shower, and left the box in his front yard where the pick-up courier could easily find it, he went back inside to have breakfast when droplets of water fell from the sky. Kageyama looked outside the window, realizing that he had to pick the box up again to place it underneath the shade of his porch instead of outside in the yard. He looked up with a frown. The weather was rather disagreeable this morning.

Defeated, he stood from the dining table to fetch an umbrella. Unfortunately, his family had a bad habit of losing umbrellas in public transportation or leaving them in their offices, so Kageyama walked around the house in search of something to shield him from the rain on the way to volleyball practice. Furthermore, he also needed to get the box back inside his house before it gets wet enough to get destroyed once picked up.

He soon found an old black umbrella hanging from a stand in the living room. Smirking to himself in satisfaction, he opened it to check for damages. The hinges were rusty, but it still worked. Closing the umbrella, Kageyama went outside quickly, but was startled instead when he found that the box was no longer there.

* * *

Yachi noticed that Kageyama didn't seem to be bothered by anything anymore the past days. She assumed that the problem must have been solved; especially that Hirari didn't seem to be troubled by anything even in their classes. Everything was back to normal before she knew it, so Yachi didn't have any reason to worry anymore. She probably was only assuming that the 'Ishikawa' was her friend, but she never really had any proof.

"Good morning, Hirari!" She greeted normally, when a bag was set down on the seat in front of her. The other girl smiled brightly. "Good morning, Yacchan. What a downpour outside!" Hirari sighed as she looked out the window to see the drizzling morning. Yachi couldn't help but sigh in comfort from the rain. She honestly preferred the sun more, but the rain did have its own charms.

Hirari fixed her hair up into a bun, instead of a ponytail. "You know, I have a really close friend who prefers to go out while it's raining." She told while pulling her seat to sit down. "She always says she'd choose the rain over walking under the scorching sun anytime."

Yachi tilted her head at Hirari. She had never heard Hirari speak about other friends a lot. "She's probably a deep person."

"Nope, she's a nerd." When those words left Hirari's mouth, Yachi can't help but yelp out 'eh?' when the atmosphere suddenly changed from warm reminiscence to a dumb ordinary high school conversation. "She went to Tokyo for a scholarship review at Nekoma High, because she failed the one at Shiratorizawa. Now she has to go to Karasuno instead, just because I'm here. That stalker." Hirari sighed, and Yachi could definitely feel the downed aura of her friend.

Laughing nervously, Yachi tried to find the right words. "But she passed Shiratorizawa's entrance exam, right? She must be intelligent, then."

"She is." Hirari laughed. "Apparently, when you're a scholar in Shiratorizawa, you get to have privilege on the dorms, and that's why she tried to take the scholarship exam. That school's pretty far from her home."

"Nekoma is farther, though… I-I mean, it's in Tokyo!" Yachi defensively followed up, scared that she might be accused for questioning the decisions of the unknown person. Instead, Hirari laughed loudly at her reaction, confusing Yachi even more. "Once you get to study in the prestigious Shiratorizawa academy, it's fairly easy to transfer to Tokyo schools. Nekoma High held its scholarship exams at around the same time Shiratorizawa did, so she just went along with the opportunity." Hirari explained.

Yachi pondered the thought. "But the education in Shiratorizawa is top-notch! It'd be a waste if she had to transfer out…"

"Maybe so." Hirari grabbed a small notebook from her bag, turning the cover over. "But that's exactly the problem, though. That girl doesn't like the pressure of trying to keep up with competitive people. It downgrades her self-esteem."

Yachi sighed. She totally gets how it must feel for Hirari's friend. She looked outside the window again; the droplets of water didn't seem to be slowing down. Hirari spoke again, catching Yachi off-guard. "She has a very weird name, as well."

* * *

"We have a new transfer student."

Those were the words in another classroom, on the same day, as a low thunder rumbled from the sky. There was nothing strange about the words, no; but it never fails to pique the curiosity of the students who hear it every time they do. What kind of person is he? Is it a boy or a girl? But the most important question of all in everyone's minds: is the person attractive?

They were all unconsciously thinking that.

The door slid open upon the teacher's signal, and everyone stared in awe – not because it was human (you can never know for sure), but because the person was immediately accepted into the college prep class despite being a transfer student in the middle of the year. The human being stepped inside the classroom, heartbeat racing against the person's chest and all eyes were on _her_.

 _Oh, no. She's cute._

She was a thin, petite girl with a lovely shade of burnt auburn brown hair. Her eyes were bright ochre brown, and she was downright physically attractive. At least, that was what Yamaguchi thought. She wasn't as pretty as their manager Shimizu; she wasn't drop-dead gorgeous, but her physical appearance was enough as it is. Yamaguchi glanced at Tsukishima from a few seats away, and as expected, the blonde didn't even react one bit.

"K-Kaji Mashumaro. I'm from Shiratorizawa Academy."

This time, everyone's mouths hung agape. Tsukishima raised an eyebrow questioningly, thinking of the many factors of why there was an elite student who chose to transfer to Karasuno. Yamaguchi looked around to see some of the male students' eyes beaming and their cheeks blushing in awe. Her head hung down; eyes averted from everyone out of social anxiety. Hands were fidgeting as she held them clasped tightly around her satchel bag, and she had a shaky smile. She didn't seem like a confident person, but her eyes were stern and glaring – Tsukishima wasn't sure if that's just how her eyes looked or if she was just trying hard to look intimidating.

But she looked painfully familiar, and not that he cared, but it almost felt as if she had already been to Karasuno even before she came barging into this class. His eyebrows furrowed as he tried to remember if he had met the girl before. She surely wasn't from his neighborhood and he never cared about the people he crosses paths with. So why does she look familiar to him?

Did she always have those dark circles around her eyes?


	6. Ch 05 Delivery

Did she always have those dark circles around her eyes? Those dark circles that make her eyes look as deep as an abyss when looked upon? But in a way, it added to her charm. That is, if he was even interested in said 'charm', which he was most definitely not. After all, he didn't even look up for too long from his notebook, missing out on the path life was carving right in front of him. He was clueless as to how this would affect him in any way possible, or what future it would bring him a few years later. He only saw her appearance briefly, but it didn't really interest him in any way. It was just a human being like the rest of them here.

Not that he even had a path in life – had had no goals in particular. Rather, he hadn't found it yet.

Both ears were deaf to the name announced in class. It's another transfer student and, _damn_ , he swore that every single female transfer student in this school had always either tried to flirt with him or any other popular sports club member at least once. Cautiously, he looked up with his signature scowl in check and eyes locked on target. He squinted, giving off a dangerous aura which would have scared her more than she already had been if she ever caught him with the unfamiliar glint in his eyes which outwardly screamed 'nope' all over. He pondered for a bit, finding a word to produce the picture... and he went for 'generic'. She looked generic, as if he could just find another one of her while walking down a few narrow streets one day. Either way, she wasn't too eye-catching.

Yamaguchi stared at him from a few seats away, confused as to why Tsukishima's mood was so sour this morning.

Tsukishima had to start his day walking in the rain – he didn't like getting wet, it felt disgusting – and that was enough reason for the blonde to feel pissed as soon as he went inside the classroom. He wasn't Kageyama, but there was one perfectly good reason for him to feel annoyed every single time it rained – his eyeglasses. When it's raining, he always, _always_ has to take them off just to wipe off the stray droplets that managed to block his field of vision.

On second thought, maybe she _was_ eye-catching, he thought as he examined her from head to toe. First of all, she was pathetic. He couldn't recall the weird name, but he could tell that this was an annoying woman, he knew. And he only knew that because she looked intelligent, but judging from the way she clutched her bag, she was timid.

"Now, Kaji-chan here just came back from a program in Nekoma High. That is in Tokyo." Their teacher proudly announced, causing everyone in the classroom to start whispering.

Second, now that he's looking at her more carefully and less dangerously, he thought she didn't look _that_ generic, after all. There were signs of foreign descent—if this is another Lev Haiba, he _fucking_ swears he'll blame Kuroo—and exhaustion was evident in her appearance, which she expertly hides in a nice smile. Yeah, her smile was nice. And no, he didn't mean that.

Smiling to cover up your tiredness is never nice.

Didn't Kuroo mention to him one time that they had a temporary manager before?

"Now, you may take your seat. There is a vacant one right there by the window."

Of course, new interesting transfer student. The seat just _had_ to be by the window. Right behind him.

She nodded and quickly—and awkwardly – bowed to the class. He found himself scoffing as the smile quickly disappears from her face and a neutral expression is seen. She looked quite naive, but he sure as hell can't quite put his finger on whether he would classify her – if she was going to be part of the simpleton or the reliable people—as generic or a rare species.

Yamaguchi was evidently puzzled at the fact that Tsukishima was even able to look up from his desk for more than one minute just to analyze the newcomer. It could be a first for the blonde – it was only on rare occasions that a transfer student would immediately be assigned to a college prep class. Or the blonde probably remembered the last time Karasuno had a transfer student in another class, it turned out to be an obsessed admirer of the volleyball club. Tsukishima never talked about these kinds of things or his classroom life with the volleyball club, because he deems it unnecessary.

Yamaguchi, however, was not surprised that Tsukishima didn't realize that the girl was an audience from their previous practice match they had with an opposite team a week ago – the same practice match where Tsukishima managed to catch the attention of a new fan from the opponent team, asking him for read-blocking tips. Yamaguchi remembers her wearing casual clothes, peeking into the gym suspiciously while he was on the side, drinking from a water bottle.

But as soon as she saw him approaching her to ask if she needed anything, she looked at him and walked away from the gym as quickly as possible, pretending to be nonchalant about it but miserably failing. It was strange. Yamaguchi did try to tell Tsukishima about 'a suspicious person who wasn't wearing a uniform peeking into the gym', but the blonde did not seem to care.

But Yamaguchi swears to himself that he saw that hair color that day.

Putting on his headphones, Tsukishima went back to reading his notes, ignoring everything as soon as the teacher left.

* * *

She was not a nice person, at all.

She was a lowkey jerk.

Okay, maybe she wasn't. But this is too suspicious.

She reminded him of someone he knew, except this one's nicer in a way.

All Tsukishima recalled was one of his male classmates approaching the seat behind him, asking for her number, and the secretly-evil woman gave a wrong number which ended up belonging to a murderous female upperclassman who charged into their classroom during break time yelling the word 'pervert', and chased the poor male around with the intention of burying him alive after the message he sent.

And the transfer student was laughing, like _damn_?

"It's written all over your face, Tsukki." Yamaguchi chuckled teasingly as they ate in peace. Tsukishima gave his companion a look of annoyance. "It can't really be helped. People who use their craftiness for things like that are always asking for trouble." Tsukishima complained quietly.

Yamaguchi wanted to tell Tsukishima that that's exactly what he does all the time, but he decided not to. As they finished lunch, Yamaguchi packed up his lunchbox to go back to his seat while Tsukishima stood up in search for a garbage can.

Briefly glancing at the empty seat behind him, there was an open notebook; the page was filled with dozens of versions of one very familiar signature he swears he saw before.

There was a G-clef in the signature.

"… _You should have come to Shiratorizawa,_ huh?"

* * *

"You know there was this very attractive senior I met in Nekoma High. He was so attractive, he deserved to die young."

Hirari's eye twitched. Her blood ran cold and she smiled weakly. She was back. Oh, she was definitely back for good. She was back since last week, never told Hirari, and now the same girl who's back had the audacity to just barge into her house through the window like some kind of murderer just like that. Hirari was thrilled, of course since it had been a long while since she saw her childhood friend – although they weren't actually friends before, since the legendary snob Kaji Mashumaro was never interested in making new friends, in the first place – but this was plain outrageous.

"… I'm not sure if you're complimenting him or plotting to kill him, Maro-chan." Hirari replied, unable to look at the cause of literally _everything_ which was Kaji Mashumaro. The girl was timid and looked innocent in every single way, but if one gets to know her and reaches Friendship Level 10, they are so screwed. "Anyway, I just received all the stuff you sent me these past two months… I saw the box outside my neighbor's house."

"What, really? Why was it there?" Mashumaro asked, and as usual, Hirari could not tell if her friend was honestly surprised or if everything was planned from the beginning. "Don't ask me, it was _you_ who sent them! I mean, what kind of sane person would send any mail with no return address and not a single name?" Hirari argued, blushing in embarrassment at the thought of the ninja moves she had to do just to get it from the neighbor's front porch without getting caught.

That dang neighbor must have left it there for the garbage truck to pick up. So cold.

On second thought, maybe Hirari should have just left the box there for the garbage collectors. "There was pouch of _salt_ in there, Maro! _SALT!_ " The girl complained even more, embarrassment making her face go even redder when Mashumaro literally started laughing at her facial expressions. "Aw, come on! You were neighbors with this volleyball player for, like, two months already and you never even said 'hi'?"

"Holy crow, I didn't even know he was a volleyball player! You're creepy!" Hirari backed away, terrified that her friend's data-gathering skills were still of a pro's. Mashumaro was definitely one of those scary people who never post anything in social media, but always secretly reading everything. "Like I said, there was this attractive upperclassman in Nekoma who was the captain of their volleyball team! He told me to try watching a practice match in Karasuno as soon as I get back to Miyagi. He even gave me a random phone number to give to guys hitting on me! Not like anyone would even hit on me, since no one ever does but he said it would be fun to give it to people and it surprisingly is!"

Hirari wasn't too sure about Nekoma's influence on her friend at the moment, but she did remember that everything that came up to this point was a joke. "There's something wrong about your statements, Maro. I can't seem to find any connection between volleyball and giving fake numbers to strangers."

But Hirari knew that everything to this point had been a joke, including Mashumaro's bad decisions. She wondered if that so-called volleyball captain knew, as well.

"You… didn't really go to Tokyo for a scholarship program, did you, Maro?"

The sound of two ice cubes colliding echoed in the empty room – Hirari's bedroom – when Mashumaro placed the glass of water she had been drinking on the study desk. A hum escaped her lips for a few seconds. "It's true that Shiratorizawa did damages to my mental health… I mean, it's an elite school… and I was recommended to Nekoma instead… but…" Mashumaro smiled contentedly. "Well, as much as I prefer the city since that is where I grew up, Miyagi has done wonders to my therapy! Isn't it great? Also, I went ice skating in Tokyo wearing a ball gown, because why not?"

Hirari had an unreadable expression on her face. The girl in front of her went ice skating wearing a _ball gown_ and it's still surprising even though it's the same girl who also sent her a bunch of trolling gifts for the past two months.

Hirari glanced at the box at the corner of her room, still feeling bad that the neighbor had all her stuff this whole time and didn't even ring the doorbell. Then Hirari remembered that the neighbor might be scared of dogs, but who was she to judge? He looked like he was always pissed off every time they walk on their way home every day or was that just his face?

Every single day.

And there was no way she was going to talk to him. "By the way, Jiru." Mashumaro's voice made Hirari turn her head from the paper she was drawing on. "You see, since I'm staying here until 9 o'clock, can we order pizza? I might burn your kitchen. Do you want me to burn your kitchen? Come on, let's order pizza. I'll do the talking, I promise."

"I have trust issues if it's you, Maro…" Hirari said quietly, eyeing her cellphone from across the table which was terrifyingly so close to Mashumaro's glass of water. "Oh, that's okay, Jiru! I have trust issues with everyone else besides you, so we balance each other!"

Hirari did not want to admit it, but the endgame will always be Mashumaro's win. After about fifteen minutes of persuasion, Hirari ended up being the one talking through the phone while Mashumaro was annoyingly making weird faces in front of Hirari to make the phone call even more awkward than it already was, especially when Hirari _had_ to laugh at Mashumaro's facial expressions at the same time the person on the other line said "Would you like a drink?"

The person taking the order ended up apologizing frantically after Hirari laughed, assuming that he must have sounded as if he was hitting on Hirari. After the call, Hirari banged her head against the table. "I don't get how someone as intelligent as you could be so…"

"I didn't get that last part, but how many more minutes until the pizza arrives?"

And people always say that Mashumaro was more mature than Hirari. They were dead wrong.

Mashumaro was timid with strangers, but Hirari would say that the former definitely knows her stuff and the limits to her knowledge. Because of Mashumaro's expertise on a lot of areas and subjects, she would oftentimes be seen as the cool, 'senpai' of everything.

But people could be wrong, anyway, Hirari sighed.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the fence, someone was cursing the rainy season.

Kageyama is rarely sick. He knows how strong his immune system was; he even scolded Hinata for running through the rain without an umbrella and bragged that he only gets sick once a year.

That 'once a year' thing just happened to be today. And it had to start affecting his body as soon as afternoon practice started.

With a box of tissues in his hand, he sneezed another time, cursing himself for his performance during volleyball practice earlier. In the end, Sugawara forced him to go home early, which was obviously the most logical thing to do so he would get better quickly and play at his best. As usual, no one else was home, so he was deciding whether he should wait for his mother so he could ask for some soup – his mother never lets him touch anything in the kitchen except bread and sandwich ingredients – or just go to sleep.

He'll probably just go to sleep, since he feels horrible.

And as soon as he decides that, the doorbell rang.

"… Crap." He was wrapped up with blankets and didn't have the energy to move. Struggling to free himself from the burrito wrap, he accidentally tripped over the fabric and fell on the wooden floor. Cursing even more, he took another tissue from the box he was holding to hold on to his nose before wobbling weakly towards his front door. As he stepped outside, a man stood there with two boxes on-hand.

"Pizza delivery!"

The dog started barking, catching the scent of meat and cheese from the other house. Kageyama stared at the delivery boy with a frown and a runny nose, almost scaring the person away. "I-Ishikawa… san?" The delivery boy asked unsurely, checking the receipt which clearly had a note that the receiver was a female. He looked back and forth from Kageyama and the receipt.

But Kageyama's intense stare made the delivery boy hand over the pizza boxes in panic, shoving it into Kageyama's arms before backing away in fear.

"I'm not… Ishikawa…" Kageyama blinked unsurely, glancing at the neighbor's gate to see the dog trying to insert its little head through the bars of the gate. He heard the neighbor's door open and a girl's voice scolding the puppy. Kageyama and the delivery boy watched as the gate opened, and for the first time in what seemed to be forever, Kageyama finally saw her face.

 _Holy crow._

They looked at each other, then at the delivery boy, making him shiver.

Without another word, Hirari handed over the payment to the courier before he fled from the scene in a hurry. She then looked at Kageyama, who looked back at her curiously while still holding the pizza boxes. With a shaky finger, she pointed at the boxes. "That's… mine."

Kageyama lifted his head up to face the sky, sniffing in the almost-dripping mucus from his nose as he handed over the boxes of pizza.

Crickets chirped and not one of them said a word.

What was Hirari supposed to say? This guy probably knew more about her and Mashumaro than they know him! They literally walk home together every night and get their mails mixed up all the time and now they even got mixed up in pizza delivery? Was she supposed to offer him a slice? Would that be awkward? She peered at him through her bangs when she noticed that he was carrying a box of tissues while he was already in his pajamas even though the sun had just set thirty minutes ago.

… What in the world was he doing with the box of tissues? And his face was all red! Wait, never mind. He's sick.

The next events seemed to have flashed before their eyes and before she knew it, she found herself inside her room once again in a blink of an eye with a flustered face, a blank mind, and an open pizza box missing a slice. In the end, she offered Kageyama Tobio one slice to make up for the troubles with their mails and for his effort of answering the door just to receive the pizza delivery he did not order. On her bed sat Mashumaro, who had been watching her every movement like a hawk ever since she entered the room.

 _Silence._

"You know, Jiru, I'm actually just waiting for you to get a love life before I die."

"EXCUSE ME?"

The fact that Mashumaro just nonchalantly said it like it was a normal thing to say made the situation worse for Hirari. "It doesn't even need to be a boyfriend or a commitment. Just mutual pining's okay with me, as long as I get to be the number one shipper."

"T-That's an odd way to start a conversation! Do you say that to everyone?" Hirari resisted the urge to throw the pizza box at Mashumaro's face or at her own face just to keep the other girl from eyeing her reactions. "No."

"So after saying that, you just flat out say 'no' in a monotonous voice, huh?" Hirari complained with a shaky voice. "Hey, I'm not the one who thought of weird stuff right after seeing a box of tissues in that guy's hand." Mashumaro soon regretted her insensitive comment when a Math book was thrown directly at her head, causing her to fall back on the bed. "You! You, you, you were watching from the window!?" Hirari was now flipping due to severe humiliation, knowing that Mashumaro must have seen the look on her face as she stared at the box of tissues.

"Yeah, and don't you think he's surprisingly good-looking?" Mashumaro teased even more, waiting for a death wish from Hirari. "H-Huh? It's the first time I saw his face, since I always only see the back of his head or when I'm glancing at him sideways when we happen to walk home using the same route, but yeah, I guess I knew he was good-looking even then?" Hirari tried to recall the number of times she tried to peek at the guy while they walked home, but she never really got a good view of his face even though he was her neighbor for two months straight.

"… You only saw the back of his head before and _still_ thought he was good-looking – how?"

A loud, frustrated scream echoed in the whole neighborhood. "MARO!"

On the other side of the wall, Kageyama bolted awake from his slumber upon hearing loud voices. Slightly appalled but still sick, he decided to just go back to sleep.

* * *

This was definitely getting out of hand; it almost felt like the world was playing tricks on him.

Kageyama decided to go for a morning jog, feeling better than ever after a long rest. After all, it was the start of the weekend once again, so he had more time to exercise his body. As he greeted the sunrise with a determined expression, he slowly walked away from his house, speed gradually increasing the farther he gets.

And then the jog starts. The morning was chilly, worrying Kageyama a little since he did not wish to get another cold once again. The break of dawn was coming, his eyes gazing at the horizon and his ears listening to the birds in the trees. He liked the sounds of his surroundings every time he goes for a jog. He would oftentimes hear a few noises from the busy areas of Miyagi's marketplace and would sometimes see some people jogging in the area, as well. Weekend morning jogs are one of the few times he actually goes the longer route towards Karasuno, so the sights and scents are pretty normal.

But this is the first time he ever heard something barking right behind him.

He froze immediately, eyes widening. He knew the sound of that bark and he had grown quite accustomed to it but it was the first time he ever heard it _that_ close to him.

And at his feet, to his shock, was a very familiar tiny puppy sniffing at him and wagging its tail excitedly upon _finally_ being able to come close to him.

This was definitely getting out of hand; it almost felt like the world was playing tricks on him.


	7. Ch 06 The Missing Canine

He always thought that animals did not like him.

This… this was entirely new.

Kageyama watched in utter disbelief at the puppy sniffing at him, unable to move another inch from his position. He managed to unintentionally drag the neighbor's dog all the way to only a few meters away from Karasuno, and now he's too shocked to do anything while the dog barked playfully at him, wagging its tail as if it just fell in love with him as quick as their freak quick.

His hand flew to his chin in thought, unmindful of how bothersome his aura was to the passing students. "Why's he challenging the dog to a staring contest?" A couple of girls whispered to each other, while the others all looked at the odd scene between the mellow aura of happiness emanating from the animal to the menacing guy looking down at it while lost in his thoughts.

Should Kageyama go back? Should he just wait for his neighbor to come to school? Is he going to catch another cold? Can a cold be transferred from person to animal? Maybe he should take it back home while it's still early? How long will it take to—

"KAGEYAMAAAA!"

And just like that, his natural instinct made his ears perk up at the sound of a familiar irritating voice and fast running footsteps. Kageyama looked up to see Hinata dashing towards him. His heart raced and the first thing his mind compelled him to do was never to let the spiker catch up to him as long as any one of them was running.

His feet moved from their positioning as his legs moved him forward towards the school in the fastest speed he could ever have recorded. He accelerated; frustrated that Hinata was still able to come neck-on-neck with him despite that fact that he was ahead a few steps. They ran yelling loud enough for all people in the way to move to the side unless they want to get ran over by the morning race.

And just like that, it was another draw. Hinata was lying on the ground, completely out of breath. Kageyama steadied himself using the railings of the staircase they had seemed to stop on. He opened his mouth even though he could not say anything with empty lungs. Hinata recovered quickly, as he usually did, and went back up on his feet. "Kageyama, was that dog yours? The one you left behind a hundred meters ago?"

* * *

Hirari had an annoying habit that Mashumaro never liked. Rather, everyone else who knew where she lived had the same habit, as well, and she was always pissed or irritated.

They all visit _every time_ she's asleep.

"Maro, wake up. You have a visitor." Mashumaro groaned, moving to face the wall with a pillow still pressed against her face, annoyed that people always have to involve her in their morning routine. Mashumaro was many things, but never a morning person. No matter how early or how late she sleeps every night, she will always be in a bad mood when she wakes up. It's supposedly an unspoken rule to never wake her up, she thought. Unfortunately, she did not make herself clear enough. "You wake up this instant, young lady, or else. You have Saturday club, right?"

Mashumaro murmured something incoherent – she was stating that she did not have a club yet - while her face was still pressed against the pillow she was hugging. " **KAJI MASHUMARO**." One last wake-up call from her mother and Mashumaro finally threw the pillow to her side and opened her eyes tiredly, blinking at the ceiling a few times. She could feel her head throbbing and her mood sour, as usual. She stretched with a groan, still annoyed, before she looked at her bedroom door to see her mother. The older woman had her left hand on her hip and her right holding a soup ladle.

"Get up. Hirari's here to see you."

Mashumaro blinked confusingly. It was rare for Hirari to even bother going all the way to her house before club. She checked her phone, which was lying beside her on the bed, and was more surprised that it was still 6:00am. It was too early. Much, _much_ early for Mashumaro, who always wakes up at 8:00.

She dragged her feet, exiting her room and on towards the front door. As soon as she opened it, prepared to complain to her friend about how _early_ it was, she was immediately grabbed by the shoulders to her bafflement. "MARO-CHAN!"

Hirari's eyes were swollen and teary while she shook Mashumaro's shoulders desperately. Mashumaro could feel her morning headache get worse in every movement. "STOP!" She shouted; her eyes in swirls while she tried to grab Hirari's arms to stop the violent shaking. "Gunchan… Gunchan's missing!"

"Who's Gunchan?" Mashumaro asked, worsening Hirari's tears. "W-Wait, don't cry! I legit don't know who Gunchan is!"

"How come you're always hanging out at our house and you don't even know who Gunchan is!?" Hirari whined, her voice even sadder than she intended it to sound. Mashumaro yawned while rubbing the back of her head, messing up her bed-hair even more, to Hirari's dismay. "He's our dog!"

Mashumaro looked at Hirari with a raised eyebrow and narrowed eyes. "…Dude, you just moved houses and got him two months ago while I was in Tokyo. I literally only hung out in that house once in my whole life." She pointed out to Hirari. The latter's eyes brightened up. "Oh, right! Anyway, we have to find him! Please help me, I don't know what happened! It appears he has been working on digging a deep hole under the fence through the neighbor's house for a while now!"

"… How could your dog dig an escape hole for so many days and none of you guys noticed?" Mashumaro could feel the sun's rays melting her, the longer she stayed outside. A scowl was evident on her face, giving off the sign of how much she despised greeting the sunrise. She is probably the only person in the entire world who didn't like greeting the sunrise. She looked at Hirari, who was practically doing sparkly puppy-eyes at her. Mashumaro could feel her sweat dripping from the way her friend was bent on convincing her to actually take a bath at _6, fucking, 15_ in the morning. "…Ugh, let me take a shower."

"That's not necessary, you know. You can go for _days_ without taking a single shower."

Mashumaro slammed the door at Hirari's face. Hirari did not regret anything – she knew Mashumaro's terrible morning mood, but she still said what should not be said, anyway.

After what seemed like forever – Mashumaro was _very_ slow-moving and unmotivated in the morning – outside the apartment, Hirari finally heard the door open. Mashumaro was dressed in casual clothes instead of a school uniform, which was probably okay(?) since she had no club activities and wasn't planning to attend any Saturday class. Mashumaro was smart and excelled in many things, but she was so _lazy_ , she probably belonged in Nekoma, after all. (It was a cat pun that Hirari has thought about just now.)

But that was exactly what made Mashumaro appear mature and hard-working to others. She was anxiety-driven – she'll do everything to make sure she does her job without disappointing anyone's expectations – and wanted to finish everything as quickly as possible. Hirari knew how to use that quality to her advantage, such as today. "I'll probably cry for a month if we never find him…" She softly whispered to Mashumaro.

And even though Mashumaro knew how incredibly persuasive and low-key manipulative Hirari was, she still always gets herself baited into the latter's influence. "You know what." Mashumaro sighed, unable to believe that she was dragged out of the house on a Saturday, for goodness' sake. "Let's split up. We'll find him quicker and you'll be able to attend Saturday cla—"

"NO!" An immediate strike of denial caused Mashumaro to flinch. "I'm sure Gunchan didn't run off too far! He has a collar on! We can find him together."

"Jiru… why'd you name a dog Gunchan, anyway?"

"THAT'S YOUR CONCERN?"

Mashumaro seemed unfazed as they walked down the stairs of the apartment building. "Okay, chill. We'll just split up if we don't find him together. _Capiche_?"

And so they went off to various paths around town, even around grassy areas, making sure they don't miss a spot. Mashumaro was carefully deducing which things could attract a dog from running away – one of the few times she actually uses her head for something useful – like the smell of meat in the marketplace or moving vehicles. Hirari would pitch in what Gunchan likes and his dislikes, such as eating grass and ending up with a green mouth later on. They found themselves in the busy area of town, as much as they both didn't like crowds of people (especially our resident introvert, Kaji Mashumaro) and Hirari never found the loud voices of market vendors to be appealing.

They passed by the area where owners usually took their dogs out, and even the park where Hirari often took Gunchan to. An hour and a half has passed. Hirari's feet were starting to hurt, and she was slowly regretting why she decided that it would be a good idea to buy heeled school shoes. And then she remembered that she wanted to appear taller than she already was (and she was already taller than Mashumaro naturally), so she shrugs off the regret and never lets it happen again.

Hirari sat on the swings in the playground they stopped by, heaving out a heavy sigh. "… He's nowhere." She started tearing up once again; ready to give up on life and everything in it. Meanwhile, Mashumaro watched her friend wipe off the tears before they could fall from her eyes. She struggled in her mind – she was never really good at comforting people. That was an understatement; she actually _sucked_ at comforting people.

"H-Hey, we'll find him! You can go to Saturday classes, if you even have them today although I'm not sure if Karasuno even has them, but yeah! I can continue the search while you just go secure your future or something, I mean, I'm sure I can think of something to find Gunchan, what do you take me for? I rescue cats from the streets and leave them in front of random people's houses so they get forced to adopt them, I'm good with animals!" Mashumaro ended up rambling helplessly, moving her hands around as she talked. Hirari looked up in confusion with swollen eyes and an expression that can be read as ' _what_ '.

"…H-Hirari?"

A third voice caught their attention. They both looked into the direction of the street and found themselves coming eye-to-eye with a certain blonde girl. "Yachi!" Hirari shot up from the swings, holding her hands out towards the first-year volleyball club manager. Yachi flinched with a matching short squeal. Mashumaro had no idea who the girl was, so she stood there awkwardly fiddling with her fingers.

"G-Gunchan's lost!" Hirari shrieked as she ran towards Yachi.

"Who's Gunchan?"

"How come none of you know who he is; I'm going to give up on life the next time someone asks me who Gunchan is!" Hirari declared loudly, causing Yachi to panic as well. The emotional girl meets the nervous wreck, while Mashumaro was just watching them from her position, entirely baffled by the escalation of events. "He's my dog! And this is Kaji Mashumaro-chan!" Hirari pointed at the girl from afar.

"…Is that how you always introduce me to people?" Mashumaro spoke. Yachi looked at her from head to toe with awe-filled eyes. _She dresses like a doll,_ Yachi thought as she took in the image of the vintage dress with a ribbon collar and ankle boots. It was like looking at a porcelain doll.

On the other hand, Mashumaro was inwardly panicking as to why the blonde was eyeing her like that.

Bonus points that Hirari was still complaining about why no one knows who Gunchan is.

"Nice to meet you! I-I'm Yachi Hitoka!" Yachi bowed to Mashumaro, who bowed back slightly without saying a word. "Um, well, have you guys looked all over for him?" Yachi tried to avoid the awkward tension by focusing solely on the matter at-hand. Mashumaro shook her head, puzzling Hirari. "What do you mean by that? We looked everywhere!" She told Mashumaro, who only shook her head another time.

"I kept telling you to ask your neighbor and you keep refusing to. The hole was dug in between your fences, dude, really." Mashumaro spoke, shocking Yachi with the usage of informal vocabulary. It did not match her ladylike appearance at all! Hirari, unbothered, looked at the ground with a blush on her face. "Okay, so maybe we should have done that, but I don't think anyone was home when I looked into Kageyama-san's yard."

 _Kageyama… san?_

Yachi gawked at Hirari. So she was right about them being neighbors, after all? Not to mention, it was the first time she even heard someone use such a respectful honorific for Kageyama! Not that Kageyama didn't deserve it, he totally did; he was a genius and Yachi wasn't judging anything, but it still surprised her and she felt bad that she ended up kneeling and apologizing to Hirari, making the situation even more confusing and chaotic.

" _Orrr_ , you can just tell me that you secretly have a crush on him. Don't worry, I won't judge. Yachi won't, too. Right?" Mashumaro always had the talent of increasing the pressure of the atmosphere to its maximum extent, and it did not help that she was smirking at Yachi while she said that. "Um, y-yes! I mean, no! I won't judge! I mean… _what_?"

"Don't listen to her, Yacchan! She's crazy! And once you finally reach Friendship Level 10 and get to the bottom of her craziness, you'll find an underground basement!" Hirari ran towards Mashumaro, pushing and covering her mouth with brute force to keep her from saying anything further. Yachi's eyes went blank while she trembled nervously, not knowing what to do. Some passers-by watched the scene from the streets with unreadable expressions. Hirari was dragging Mashumaro out of the playground area towards where Yachi was forcefully while the latter complained.

"'Kay, but you didn't even deny anything." Mashumaro said, making Hirari say something incoherent; anything just to cover up the former's words. "E-Eh, but, um… Kaji-san, maybe we should lay off, I mean… that's a matter she should think for herself… her feelings, I mean…" Yachi suggested sheepishly. It was Hirari's turn to gawk at her.

"You… you actually _believe_ what this airhead is saying? This airhead who asks people she just met questions like ' _what are your standards in men'_!? She honestly did that to a classmate in Shiratorizawa!" Hirari's voice had never been that loud in their classroom, and Yachi shook her head violently in defense and astonishment.

"You're right, Yachi. Let's all agree to leave this matter to Hirari. I mean, the poor girl thinks the back of her neighbor's head is attractive; _who even what how_ , right?" Mashumaro smiled, and although Yachi had no idea what the last part meant, she nodded with a smile of her own. "A-Are we just going to ignore Gunchan now?" Hirari was now struggling to get into the conversation, when Yachi spotted something at the corner of her eye. She turned her head towards the sidewalk, her face pale.

"G-Guys! Someone from the volleyball club's coming! Act natural!" Yachi hurriedly told the two confused girls. Mashumaro looked at the direction of the two very, _very_ familiar people and her face turned into that of a horrified one. "But do they know where Gunchan is, because—" Hirari was silenced when Mashumaro sent a knowing look at her while the two people got closer.

They were just thankful it wasn't Kageyama.

"Oh, Tsukki. Isn't that Yacchan and the transfer student? Oh, there's another girl."

In the end, they all looked like criminals. Mashumaro had her arms crossed over her chest, standing up straight with her feet together, glaring at the ground angrily for no apparent reason except to avoid the gazes of her two classmates – one of them which caught her _stalk_ —watching the volleyball practice match before. Hirari didn't know who the two were so she didn't know what else to do but to glance back forth between them and Mashumaro, pretending not to care and actually failing at it because her sweat continuously dripped from her forehead, her hands going up every second just to wipe her face with her sleeves. Yachi fumbled with her arms helplessly, lacking ideas of her own, so she ended up moving her hands in awkward positions, looking at the ground with shaky pupils and a trembling body, trying so hard to keep the scowl on her face and wondering how Mashumaro was doing it so effortlessly.

Mashumaro was trying so hard not to yell at Hirari for being so obvious, so she decided to avert her gaze, trying to find anything else that's interesting to look at besides the trail of ants at her feet. Yachi could not keep the straight posture for too long, so her body slowly sank down, making her even shorter than the two girls and the most eye-catching one, so far. Hirari's neutral expression turned into a weird awkward smile, while she tried not to laugh at how the freckled boy and the blonde giant was looking at them.

"I-Is everything okay?" Yamaguchi asked. Tsukishima was eyeing each girl questioningly. Yachi's mind went blank. Slowly looking up to meet the gazes of her two club mates, she tried so hard to grin; it only increased the amount of suspicion in the area. "Yeah, we're good." She weakly said.

"You sure?" Tsukishima spoke, and Yachi knew that there could be no escaping his keen observation skills. She inwardly dug out any topic she could from her brain – anything just to keep them away from the awkwardness of this meeting. "Well, uh, we sort of… lost Gunchan."

"Who's Gunchan?" Yamaguchi asked, unfortunately, making Hirari snap. "Okay, that's it! I'm done, bye!" She waved her arms up in the air, as if to signal that she is _so_ over everything. She walked away, making Mashumaro lose her 'cool' composure. The brunette quickly tailed Hirari, leaving Yachi to deal with the predicament. "D-Did I do something?" Yamaguchi asked in panic while the two boys watched the girls walk away from the scene hurriedly.

"No, you didn't! It's her lost dog and it's a long story, trust me! You're okay! You're good!" Yachi and Yamaguchi ended up bowing to each other apologetically, even though there was absolutely nothing to apologize for.

 _Who in the world would name their dog Gunchan?_

Tsukishima thought.


	8. Ch 07 Gunther

**My updates are as fast as their freak quicks.**

* * *

Just when Yachi thought that their day may now proceed as normal, nothing could be worse than going into the gym with Tsukishima and Yamaguchi, only to find Hinata being cornered by their upperclassmen.

"So you're telling me…" Sugawara coughed. "That Kageyama is late for practice _because_ he lost his dog?"

"That's actually quite cold of you, Suga. I mean, I'd panic if I lost a pet, too." Asahi spoke, triggering Nishinoya. "You don't have to worry about that, Asahi-san! Animals are naturally scared of you, so don't feel bad if you ever lost your pet!"

"That's actually quite cold of you, Noya-san." Tanaka mirrored Asahi's facial expression.

Hinata was backed against the wall, defensively putting on a Karate pose. "I-I don't know! I just asked if the dog he was with was his and then he suddenly ran back into the direction we came from!"

"You better go find him, then." Tsukishima suddenly said, making all heads turn to his direction. Even Yamaguchi did a double take upon hearing Tsukishima's suggestion. "… You're concerned about Kageyama?" Tanaka asked, successfully pissing Tsukishima off for the whole day.

"No. But considering that your quicks are still at a 70% success rate, you can't perfect it today without the King's tosses." Tsukishima walked away to put on his knee pads, while the seniors looked at one another. "We'll just have to explain to Coach, then?" Sugawara asked Daichi, who sighed in return. "Yeah. Go ahead, Hinata."

"SERIOUSLY? YOU'RE LETTING ME GET AWAY WITH IT?"

* * *

Kageyama really wished he'd stop being late to his practices just because of the mishaps between him and his neighbor who he still didn't know the name of.

It was funny that he knew bits of information about her – the sketchpads and art materials in the packages probably meant she was an artist and her baby-talking every time she comes home might mean that her dog was her baby – but he doesn't even know her name. Frankly, Kageyama didn't care whether the dog would get lost or whatsoever.

But the dog followed him and he may not admit it, but he felt relieved that an animal actually _liked_ him.

"Dumbass Hinata…" He cursed, wishing that the orange-haired small guy didn't have such an influence over his competitive instinct. Now, he's stuck walking around the neighborhood, looking for a dog that he seemingly and unconsciously made friends with over the past two months. He searched everywhere, from the busy streets to the parks. He didn't even know why he still cared.

But it was a dog. That was enough reason to care.

Kageyama was never really allowed to have pets. He grew up with no companions at all, so he obviously did not know how to deal with both people and animals alike. Even so, there was a little dog that was friendly enough to greet him every time he passed by. The feeling was new to him.

After what seemed to be half an hour, Kageyama soon passed by a store. The scent attracted him enough for him to glance with an excited face. It turned out to be a takeout pizza store, making Kageyama realize that he was, after all, hungry after all the running and walking. It wouldn't exactly hurt his wallet if he were to buy at least two slices of pepperoni, too. He walked towards the stand with sparkling eyes, causing those who saw him to think themselves why he looks strangely happy _and_ angry at the same time.

Kageyama walked away from the stand with paper bag in his hands and a giddy face. His stomach rumbled from the smell of meat, his hands reaching out inside while we walked away from the busy district to the quieter parts of Miyagi.

"YOU SKIPPED PRACTICE JUST TO EAT?" A loud voice came from behind Kageyama, the setter flinching and almost dropping the bag. He angrily turned around to see Hinata pointing accusingly at him. "Dumbass!" Was the only thing that came out of Kageyama's mouth.

Hinata walked closer to the taller boy, a disappointed frown plastered on his small face. "I went through all this trouble looking for you, so give me the other piece."

"Hell, no." Kageyama quickly refused, and the boys ended up battling with each other just for a slice of pizza. Hinata tried attacking in all open areas, while Kageyama pushed him away while raising the paper bag just so Hinata would never reach it. It was a never-ending battle which eventually tired them out, as they stopped by on a playground to rest. Kageyama sat on one of the swings, finally digging out his slice of pizza. He was hungrier than ever now, especially that he got tired once again, and for the record, he hasn't even touched anything volleyball-related.

"Everything would be easier if you just knew what the dog's name was. How'd you get it to even follow you? You must have threatened it." Hinata managed to get ahold of the other pizza slice after their battle, almost dropping it just as soon as he finished talking when Kageyama kicked his hamstrings. "It's my neighbor's. It greets me every day." The setter took a bite from his slice, trying to recall what his neighbor looked like. He had just realized that he knew the dog's face better than he did his neighbor.

"You seem to be calm about the fact that you've become a magnet of everything your neighbor owns." Hinata took a large bite from his pizza slice, mouth stuffed as he talked. "It's not my fault that the house was registered to the wrong address." Kageyama stood up from the swings, walking out of the playground. Hinata followed after, taking a few quick steps to be able to walk in front of Kageyama, facing him. "So what are you going to do now?"

"You and I both know that I can't miss practice." Kageyama stated, walking towards the direction of the school. Hinata frowned. "Okay, but nothing's going to greet you later when you get home."

Kageyama stopped in his tracks, Hinata still in front of him. The taller boy looked straight into Hinata's eyes, smirking. "Watch me."

Hinata unwillingly followed Kageyama all the way to the setter's house, complaining about the distance and the time they could have spent tossing and spiking balls across the court. Once they reached the crossroads, Kageyama's aura became even more noticeable to the people they encountered on the street while Hinata elbowed him to lessen the amount of attention Kageyama was accidentally gathering. "Why'd you drag me all the way here?" Hinata finally asked.

Without another word, Kageyama went to his front lawn, scrutinizing his surroundings when he noticed a pile of dirt and a lack of grassy patch near his fence. The duo walked towards the spot, finding a messy hole in between the fence. "I see, he probably used this." Kageyama started covering the hole by piling up dirt on the area with his shoes. "Yeah, but fixing that now isn't going to bring the dog back, you know." Hinata reminded the setter.

"Shut up! I know that." Kageyama clicked his tongue as he walked away from the hole, digging up something from his bag. It was his phone, much to Hinata's confusion. Kageyama checked the time. _9:37am_. He then snapped his head towards Hinata, not saying a word.

"… Y-you're just being really scary today." Hinata muttered. Suddenly, Kageyama pressed the spiker's head down until Hinata could no longer be seen from the other side of the fence. "Listen, if anyone comes out of neighbor's house, press the Record button immediately." Kageyama instructed, handing over his phone to the clueless boy. "… HUH?" Hinata was about to open his mouth to argue, when they heard the sound of the door open from the other house.

Kageyama hurriedly ran to his house, trying to avoid being seen while Hinata clumsily fumbled on the keys. Being the smaller boy meant doing the dirty stuff and Hinata did not like the idea at all. He pressed the Record button, still clueless about what on Earth Kageyama was planning now.

"Gunther! I brought a treat!" A female's voice – not Hirari's – could be heard from the other side of the fence. Hinata was looking at Kageyama, waiting for another set of instructions. In response, Kageyama's hand went to his neck, making a slicing motion. With that, Hinata stopped recording whatever he was recording and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Eh? Where's Gunther? Mom! Did Haru-chan bring Gunther with her?" Footsteps could be heard walking back into the other's house until the door was closed. With that, both boys came out of their hiding places, looking at each other curiously.

Then they both yelled a loud "Alright!" even though Hinata still didn't know what they just did.

As though they just did something illegal, Kageyama dragged Hinata away from his house towards another route. "What was that recording for?" Hinata sped up to keep up with Kageyama's speed. As though it was natural, Kageyama sped up his footsteps even more. "To lure out the dog."

"We don't even know where the dog is!" Hinata reasoned out, while they both were practically already running towards nowhere. Kageyama grunted until they both finally yelled at the top of their lungs as they dashed down towards the road. Within five minutes, the two boys reached the destination that a normal person would reach at about fifteen. Again, they were on the grass, panting heavily.

"The… older sister… brings the dog here… at 10:00AM every weekend." Kageyama finally admitted casually to make Hinata look at him with terrified eyes. "Why do you know that!?"

"During our rest days, I jog by this park quite often and always see the dog." Kageyama, dusting off his pants, stood up and looked around. Hinata jumped to his feet, disbelieving. "I'm asking why you know it's the older sister."

"I heard my neighbor call the other girl 'Nee-chan'." Kageyama then started to walk into the park, watching the few people and children running around. There were owners and pets, as well. Hinata followed after the tall guy, secretly thinking to himself about what Kageyama even does outside of volleyball. "… You seriously have the time to listen to your neighbor's conversations to the point of even knowing their daily routine, you weirdo?"

Hinata was immediately flung three meters away from Kageyama.

Like all families, even Kageyama had a daily routine. Most days he would spend outside, knowing how eerie the silence was every time he was home alone. Although he rarely sees his parents, he was always unbothered. It gave him more time to think; to play volleyball or go outside to take a walk. Before Karasuno, his daily routine was mostly just him.

Before his neighbor moved in the house next door, he didn't really have any other interesting things in his daily life besides volleyball and Karasuno.

And just like that, five minutes past ten, Kageyama held his phone up at full volume, replaying a certain recording from the entrance of the park. Unfortunately, the park was too noisy for the phone to be heard, and the other dogs which happened to hear the enticing sound and the word 'treat' all got lured towards Kageyama. Once again, Kageyama tried. _All_ dogs started barking at him as a response.

With a deep breath, Kageyama looked down at his feet, chewing on the bottom of his lip before parting them to yell. **"GUNTHER! I BROUGHT A T-TREAT!"** He scared off a few children and animals, regrettably.

Shocked to the core, Hinata was not too sure about the plan, until he heard a certain bark coming from behind him. His eyes twinkled in amazement when he turned around. "He… he found us!" Hinata laughed as the dog circled around them in joy.

"But then the recording was useless and you sort of messed up a bit there, but still… _nice_ , Kageyama!"

"YOU PISS ME OFF!"

* * *

At the end of the day, Hirari dreaded going home. The thought of not having her pet to greet her hurt her heart more than the fact that her club President yelled at her earlier for being late for an important meeting regarding an upcoming art raffle. And above anything else, Hirari hated getting yelled at.

She held her phone in front of her face, texting a short message to both Yachi and Mashumaro while she opened the gate to her home. Her thumb hovered above the Send button as her lips trembled. She opened her mouth, trying to keep herself from crying. "I-I'm home!"

Before she could even process the sound of a bark, she looked to her neighbor's house to see a familiar little dog standing at the side, in front of the yard next door. Her eyes welled up in tears, dropping her bag to open her arms towards the animal. As if he understood, Gunther raced into Hirari's hug, snuggling his head under her chin while she giggled. "Gunchan! I thought I lost you forever!"

Hiding down with his back against the fence, a certain raven-haired teenager watched the event with a secret glance, as it was the first time he ever saw her so happy.

And as though automatically, they once again were walking on the same path the next night after that day. Another girl whom Kageyama had never seen before walked with his neighbor for a few meters before they separated their ways at the last intersection. Then it was just the two of them, as always. Not one of them said a word to each other while the night in Miyagi was quiet and the moonlight shone from above.

Kageyama looked at her sideways, taken aback when she did the same and their eyes met.

They both looked away quickly with their hands covering the bottom half of their faces, trying to hide their shy smiles.


	9. Ch 08 Lewis Carroll

His name was Tsukishima Kei.

Mashumaro at least knew that. They had been classmates for a while now and she still couldn't bring herself to tell the blonde to at least move his head so she could copy the notes on the board. In the end, she would throw herself into Yachi and Hirari's room, begging them to let her copy their notes.

"I knew you were lazy, but this is going too far." Hirari once told her, which ended up with Hirari having all her notes photocopied for Mashumaro. The latter did not think it was important for her to mention that the tall classroom jerk had been blocking her view to the board, so she just tried to endure it. The predicament went on for days until she finally gave up on the notes. She passed quizzes and exams without reviewing a single chapter in the books, so she knew she could survive without notes.

But that wasn't an excuse! She was in the college prep class for a reason, although she always hated having to prove herself.

Not to mention, that freckled boy who was always hanging around Tsukishima would often glance at her with narrowed eyes from time to time, as if he was taking in every detail of her being. She wasn't stealthy enough in watching the practice match, so she felt paranoid about the fact that the freckled boy saw her that time.

Mashumaro, no matter where she went or what she wore, _always_ looked suspicious.

She once tried to escape the guidance counselor by stealthily walking and peeking into every corner of the school hallways, carefully staring at each person in the corridor to see if there was anyone with the label 'school counselor' on them. Just when she thought she was safe, one student called her from afar, giving her the idea that the counselor was, indeed, asking random students to look for her.

And she even tried so hard to hide her frequent trips to the office. _Ugh._

She never came back to the office, though, and was often seen by the students walking slowly and carefully in the corridor as if she was always hiding from someone. Which she actually was.

And every day she would avoid the freckled boy which she now knew as Yamaguchi Tadashi because she wasn't planning on having to face a confrontation anytime soon. All she did was go to the practice match because a certain someone from the Nekoma High volleyball team asked if she could _'look after his student Tsukki'_ and see how he was doing with the read-blocking thing.

But maybe it was because she is always trying hard not to be noticed that she is always noticed.

A classroom assignment had the students look for literary works to write a book report on. As soon as the assignment was given for the weekend, Mashumaro went to the public library on her own as she still did not have any friends within the borders of her classroom. The place was simple and very far from what the libraries in Tokyo looked like, but it gave off the most serene aura Mashumaro had ever felt. There were more people in the Miyagi libraries than in Tokyo, because the latter relied more on the internet. Sunday seemed to be a library day for most of the students in Miyagi.

Mashumaro would rely on the internet, as well, but she always liked libraries even though she never really gets to finish an entire book. Still, she didn't want to stay in the house or she'll end up just lazing around all weekend as usual. She knew she was going to have to join a club soon after just a few adjustments into the easy-going atmosphere of Karasuno.

She soon found herself searching in the fiction area, trying to look at every beautiful hardbound book positioned out of her reach. "I'm a strong independent woman." She would always mumble that to herself, refusing to ask a stranger for help. She exhaled, eyeing the _Grimms' Fairy Tales_ book while she rolled up her long sleeves. It wasn't the most ideal thing for a class book report, but Mashumaro had always liked the book, so who cares what the rest of class thinks?

Then again, she could also go for the other classics like _Alice in Wonderland_ and its sequel.

She placed her right foot on the ledge of the lowest shelf while her hands held on the edge of the shelf above her. It was painful for her fingers, but she dreaded the idea of having to ask for a ladder or worse, help from a total stranger.

Also, this wasn't a shoujo manga, so there is no need to expect for some tall guy to grab the book for her from behind her. That's not going to happen. Not in her story.

Her dominant right hand reached for the book while the left kept her balance. She was already tiptoeing on the bottom shelves, but she refused to give in. At her current position, the book was just barely right in front of her eyes, tightly stuck in between the other huge books, much to her dismay. She was able to grasp the spine tightly with her right hand before finally having the book in her hands.

But the now empty space where the book was once positioned made it possible for her to see the other side of the shelf, and she almost fell from the sight that greeted her.

From the other side of the shelf she was peering in was a certain blonde with his back turned towards her. He appeared to be browsing the books on the farther shelf, Mashumaro assumed, as his fingers were brushing through the titles engraved on the spines of the thicker covers. He moved his head sideways while he checked the books on the sides, giving Mashumaro a glimpse of the structure of his jawline and the way his eyeglasses rested on the bridge of his nose.

Mashumaro blinked, not realizing how suspicious she looked once again in her human observation activities. She was curious as to what book the blonde was looking for. Her eyes moved down to his other hand, which was already holding two other books. He must be creating options before he makes a final decision.

Her toes were starting to hurt, so she lowered herself down for a few seconds before standing on her tiptoes again so her eyes could at least reach the open view to the other side. To her surprise, Tsukishima had already moved from his spot to check the next shelves. Using her elbows to support her body from falling, she put the book she was holding in between her armpits so she could move the other books on the shelves with her other hand to a position where they wouldn't block the view to the person she was observing.

From his position, Tsukishima's side view was clearer to Mashumaro, now that he was standing further to the side. He had the usual stoic expression on his face, even as he seemed as if he couldn't find a third book to add to his bank. She squinted, trying to get a better look at the titles of the books he was already holding. Mashumaro had terrible eyesight, after all.

She scooted a bit closer to Tsukishima's position, moving her tiptoes and her hands to keep supporting her body. While she moved her arms, the book slipped from her body. Her eyes widened while she watched the book in horror, trying to save it last minute, but she was a few seconds late when the book completely fell down.

 _THUD._

The sound echoed all over the quiet library, but was deafened by the sound of her mini heart attack ringing in her ears. Her toes slipped from the bottom shelf, causing her to drop both feet on the ground on impulse while still trying to steady herself from completely tripping and falling flat on the floor by gripping the edge of the higher shelf tightly with her fingers. Still facing the bookshelf and with one hand to her chest, she tried to calm down her racing heartbeat.

It took her long deep breaths to be able to stand straight and pretend like nothing happened. She looked up at the empty space on the higher shelf, ready to carry her body up again. Standing on her tiptoes once more, she stepped on the lower shelf until her eyes reached the view on the other side.

Tsukishima Kei was nowhere to be seen.

This did not help her panicked heart. She let out a breathy sigh as she turned her head from side to side, but there were no signs of life through her looking hole. It also didn't seem as if he took a book from the other shelves, either.

"Excuse me."

Mashumaro froze on her spot.

 _No way._

A cold shiver ran down her spine, her shoulders stiff and her neck refusing to budge. She slowly, carefully, silently turned her head with a face full of unspeakable terror. Her toes caved in, and she tripped on the lower shelves, causing her to yelp and jump away from the shelf as she turned sideways, her body now facing away from the bookshelf. Her eyes were on the ground; the sight of a pair of feet standing in front of her blurred her eyesight and all other senses.

She looked up and bit her lip to prevent herself from screaming.

"You dropped this." There stood Tsukishima Kei looking down at her with her book in his hands.

She opened her mouth only to close it again. Without another word, she bowed politely and fled the scene.

 _[To: Jirururu]_

 _Do you have any classic literature books I could borrow for my book report?_

 _[To: Maro-chan]_

 _Dude, your level of laziness never ceases to amaze me. The library exists for a reason._

 _[To: Jirururu]_

 _I couldn't find Lewis Carroll in the library lololol_

 _[To: Maro-chan]_

 _WHAT KIND OF LIBRARY DOESN'T HAVE LEWIS CARROLL IN IT DID U EVEN LOOK_

 _[To: Jirururu]_

 _I did but someone tried to kill me for it so nope not going back in there again lol_

Hirari could feel Mashumaro laughing at her from afar and as much as she wanted to ditch the girl for her laziness, she decided to go to the library on a Sunday – which was supposedly her rest day – just to prove that there was, indeed, Lewis Caroll in the town library. It was still early morning, yet the sun was already unleashing its wrath to the humans of the earth with its heat rays. "I bet she didn't go to the library. She hates sunlight." Hirari grumbled, stepping out her front gate hastily.

* * *

"Good morning." Tsukishima greeted as soon as he arrived just in time for the bus departure. Nishinoya jumped up to his face as a greeting. "You're late, Tsukishima!" He remarked, messing up the blonde's hair while laughing triumphantly.

"Did you get the books you needed, Tsukki?" Yamaguchi ran to his friend, to which Tsukishima had to fix his glasses which almost fell from his face from Nishinoya's previous attack. "Yeah."

"Oh, right! We also have that assignment! I think all college prep classes have it." Yachi smiled with Hinata just following right behind her. "What assignment?" The orange-haired spiker asked Yachi, who was about to answer when someone else beat her to it.

"They have a book report."

All eyes, including the upperclassmen's, turned to Kageyama while some even had their mouths gawking at him in astonishment. Tanaka and Nishinoya blinked a few times, unable to process what just happened. "… Why do you know that?" Tsukishima, as usual, was asking the important questions.

"YOU STALK—mph!" Hinata was grabbed violently by the head; while Kageyama's other hand clamped his mouth shut. "Dumbass Hinata! Hinata-dumbass!" He growled, not noticing the looks on Nishinoya's and Tanaka's faces upon realization. Yachi looked back and forth from Hinata to Kageyama, then suddenly gasped when the gears in her head started turning.

"Hey, get on the bus! Nekomata-sensei won't be waiting for us all day!" Ukai yelled out from the bus, diminishing the scandalous scene right in front of him. Fortunately for the crows, it was another free Sunday for the Tokyo schools. The bus ride, however, cannot guarantee a safe ride for Kageyama.

In fact, staying in the bus for the _whole_ trip meant that there was no escape.

With Tanaka and Nishinoya both grinning at him like maniacs while they sat on the bus seat right in front of him and Hinata, he was sure that this was going to be one rough ride. "Well, well, well, Kageyama. How _did_ you know about the college prep's assignment?" Tanaka taunted. Kageyama's eyebrow twitched in return.

"I'm guessing he has certain connections with a certain student in the class." Nishinoya's grin widened even more. Hinata tilted his head, trying to think how the second-years knew about— _oh._

They saw the advanced math books in the box before.

It was frustrating for Kageyama to think that even though the people in front of him were idiots, they were sharp as hell when it came to girls. "He does!" Hinata interrupted with a loud voice, making Kageyama hit the other's head so hard, it caused a huge lump to appear. Yachi looked behind her seat upon hearing Hinata's voice and the following laughter from the two second-years.

"Would you keep it down!?" Kageyama resisted the urge to yell loud enough for everyone else in the bus to hear them. "You trying to get a girlfriend behind our backs, you bastard?" Tanaka's teeth managed to turn razor sharp upon saying those words.

"HUH? He isn't— _ohhhhh_." Hinata tried to defend Kageyama, only for something to click in his mind. He looked at Kageyama weirdly, and the poor setter didn't have any space in the bus to even back away.

"Don't worry about it!" Nishinoya reassured them. "Kageyama's a growing boy, he'll eventually manage. It goes the same for everyone. Let us help you, Kageyama!" Nishinoya's confident aura uplifted both Hinata and Kageyama, only for the setter to realize what the libero meant afterwards.

"N-No. I don't need it. I just happen to hear my neighbor's conversation from time to time, that's just about it." Kageyama finally explained. In a flash, Tanaka and Nishinoya both frowned in disappointment at the first-year. "You know, that's exactly why you don't have any friends." Hinata reminded him. "HUH?" Kageyama did not hold back a yell this time around.

"WOULD YOU GUYS KEEP QUIET BACK THERE?" Daichi finally scolded them, with Sugawara smiling apologetically beside him.

The boys spoke a little quieter, which was hard for them since they were literally the four loudest people in the volleyball club. "I bet you don't even know her name yet." Nishinoya guessed, making Hinata laugh because of how accurate it was. "Hey, seriously? How could you know so much about her and not know her name?" Tanaka asked sincerely this time, with no ulterior motive.

"She never told me." The way Kageyama said it made everyone around him wince. "Dude, she knows _your_ full name." Nishinoya replied quickly. Hinata's mouth formed into the shape of the letter O, trying to recall the one time that the neighbor could possibly figure out Kageyama's name besides the nameplate in front of their residence. "Oh! That time when Takeda-sensei handed over your knee pads! Wasn't she the one who returned it?"

"You finally figured it out, Shoyo! Although I didn't realize it that time, as well." Nishinoya proudly declared, with Tanaka staring at him in awe in the background. "I always wondered why you didn't just return all the packages to your neighbor the moment you received them." Tanaka stated, although he immediately took it back. "Then again, you are a socially-challenged person and probably didn't even consider the option."

"Don't say that, Ryu! Remember that none of the packages had a name on them?" Nishinoya placed a hand on Tanaka's shoulder as he spoke. "Oh, right, Noya-san! I forgot about that factor!"

"It's probably Haru-chan. That's what her older sister calls her." Kageyama stated, making all heads turn to his direction again. "Okay, why do you know that?" Tanaka asked.

"I heard it, too! That time when we were hiding and recording her voi—mph!" Hinata was suffocated immediately, but it was too late. Nishinoya and Tanaka were now looking at Kageyama with devious smirks on their faces, obviously plotting something.

"I knew there was something you cared for besides volleyball! I knew it from the start!" Nishinoya yelled loudly, disrupting the supposedly quiet bus trip and successfully catching the attention of everyone inside. "Didn't he just accuse Hinata at the start, though?" Tanaka asked.

On another seat, Sugawara was sighing defeatedly. "Oh, no. What now?" He murmured quietly. "That honestly didn't surprise me, though." Daichi's hand flew to his face, giving up on trying to keep the noise down.

Kageyama watched as the three people surrounding him announce stuff about feelings. He was deaf to their advice while his thoughts drifted off. It made him wonder to himself that he does already know significant stuff about his neighbor, but never her name. Was it Haruhi? Haruka? Miharu? He thought to himself, trying to come up with various names from that one nickname he knew.

The bus ride sure was a long one.

* * *

"Um…"

Tsukishima sat on the floor with a towel on his head and a water bottle in his hand. They just finished three sets and are all resting after another set of diving receives. He had gotten quite better at them, but now he has to deal with two of the most annoying – and helpful – people in the world.

Bokuto and Kuroo stood in front of him, one with his arms crossed confidently while the other had them on his hips. Both had equally menacing grins. "Hey, hey, hey! Block for me, Tsukki!" Bokuto's greeting always started with that. Never a simple 'hi' or a 'hello'.

On the other hand, Kuroo was looking at him in a strange way. This put Tsukishima at one level of unease. "… What?" He asked the Nekoma captain in the most polite tone he could muster. Kuroo's smirk only grew wider as he knelt down to Tsukishima's eye level, increasing the amount of discomfort in Tsukishima's body.

"So have you met her?" Kuroo asked.

"I have no idea who you're talking about." Tsukishima retorted, taking his glasses off to wipe the remaining sweat off of his face. He tried to avert his gaze from Kuroo, but the black cat was insistent on holding on the eye contact (he loves making people uncomfortable.) leaving Tsukishima with no choice but to star directly at his face with furrowed eyebrows and a confused expression.

Kuroo chuckled mischievously. Bokuto frowned. "What _are_ you talking about, Kuroo?"

"My cute little _kouhai_."

Tsukishima's scowl appeared evident this time as both middle blockers stood up from the floor. Bokuto seemed even more surprised than he usually looked. "Y-You have one!?" He beamed at Kuroo, to which Kuroo responded by laughing proudly like how a father does when bragging about their children.

"Of course I do! And she's a cute specimen!" Kuroo and Bokuto were both talking nonsense again, and Tsukishima thought this would be the best time to leave while they were distracted. He was about to go when Yamaguchi ran towards him, carrying three books in his arms. "Tsukki! Which one of these are you going to use for the book report? Sorry, I looked into your bag, but I thought I could use one as a reference, too. And the deadline's tomorrow, as well, so…"

Tsukishima clicked his tongue, about to take the books when two meddling hands interfered, taking all of the materials from Yamaguchi. "Woah! These are all complicated-looking books!" Bokuto exclaimed, holding up the two books he managed to steal from Yamaguchi's hold.

Kuroo's eyes examined the only book he took carefully. "Really? 'Cause I don't think _Alice in Wonderland_ is that complicated."


	10. Ch 09 Fairytale Girl

"We're sorry, miss. Unfortunately, the last hardbound copy of _Alice in Wonderland_ has been borrowed."

Hirari sighed. When Mashumaro mentioned that _someone_ tried to fight her for a book, Hirari did not even think for one second that she could be serious. Or maybe she just exaggerated everything. _Or_ she probably did not even leave her house for a library trip and lucky-guessed that a popular classic such as that book would be out of stock. It was a cliché choice, so Hirari thought of many reasons why Mashumaro would want to write about it.

Then again, Hirari went around the place, trying to find other interesting books she had not encountered yet. Maybe even find one suitable and unique enough to get a book report done on.

She opened her umbrella to shield herself from the sun's rays as noon came. Walking down her path home, she realized that she never really did anything during Sundays except to walk her dog to the park (although her sister would walk the dog every other day.) But she wasn't really a fan of staying outside for so long.

In any way, she didn't want to admit defeat. There was no way she was going to be seeing Mashumaro's taunting laughter. Not this time.

* * *

Tsukishima could not get them to stay away from him and it irked him so much to the point of hiding in the sleeping quarters after eating his lunch.

The morning had already started rough for him when Yamaguchi made the mistake of deciding on which books to use during the break. While it was inappropriate to discuss academics during practice, Tsukishima can never blame Yamaguchi. They were already cramming and the deadline was only a few hours away. Being in the upper classes was rough, but they managed it quite well until today.

It didn't help at all that he and Kuroo were directly head to head at some points in the rotation of the matches. "Didn't know you were the classic fairytale type, Tsukki." It was only one of the many statements that Kuroo used during their blocking confrontations on-court, but Tsukishima was already done with dealing with just one. Hearing the other taunts only managed to decrease his enthusiasm in doing the assignment. Thankfully, the rotation was changed for the last few sets and he wasted no time to condition his mind into actually doing the assignment later and not remembering Kuroo's shit-eating grin while doing it.

The next thing he knew, they were facing Fukurodani and he was given the task to block Bokuto's spikes head-on. "Your taste in books is cool, Tsukki! Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise!" Bokuto yelled while mid-air, spiking through Tsukishima's block effortlessly while the blonde just silently wished that the match would end quickly because he didn't want to hear anything else.

The book wasn't even his choice to begin with.

Choosing books was a fairly easy task for Tsukishima. He would often read books as a child, so he knew some advanced novels with an insane usage of vocabulary words. But in his whole life of studying, Tsukishima never really fancied reading fiction. He was all for the facts and documented history.

He had never read _Alice in Wonderland_ in his entire life. He knew that the reason why he decided to pick the book up was because he had never seen at least one word on its pages. Maybe, just maybe, he _could_ try challenging himself into creating something he had never done before – a report on fiction, not to mention, the very book that was said to consist numerous symbolisms by covering up the dirt of the real world with colorful characters and bizarre events.

Of course, Tsukishima only thought that upon seeing the book on the library floor. It wasn't a priority. He'd still choose novels based on the previous world wars than a book about a girl who fell down a hole due to sheer curiosity.

Whatever _that_ _girl_ was doing in the library, Tsukishima pretended he didn't see.

He decided, however, to never let Bokuto and Kuroo know, unless he wanted to hear more of their stupid teasing. Unlucky for him, they still followed him all the way back to the sleeping quarters as soon as he left after lunch. Yamaguchi apologized over and over again for even taking the books out in the open, but what's done is done. Now, Tsukishima was left to deal with _them_ for the rest of the day.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Bokuto yelled for the nth time as they tailed Tsukishima through the path walk that connected all gyms and the sleeping quarters. Kuroo was flipping through the pages of a certain book, reading all of the words out loud with pure emotion, trying to piss off the blonde who was definitely going to snap the moment Bokuto even _dares_ to yell out another—

"Hey, hey, hey! Tsu—"

"If it's alright with you, I would like to fix my stuff now before we go by afternoon." Tsukishima snappishly turned around, still trying to be polite. They were still his seniors, after all. It was already a huge blessing that they weren't staying in Tokyo until night, giving the college prep students time to study their lessons before the school week begins. Even though they were supposed to go home earlier than usual, the day sure was taking so _long_ to end.

Bokuto and Kuroo only tilted their heads sideways, still smiling at Tsukishima's frustrated face.

"If I were you, I wouldn't choose this, though." Kuroo closed the book, handing it over to Tsukishima. "It's a pretty common book. Even a grade-schooler would want to write about this classic."

Tsukishima hesitated briefly, his eyes looking at the book as if carefully analyzing it. "I wouldn't choose this, either." He finally replied, taking the book into his own hands with his eyes still fixated on the details of the hard cover. "It was just an option, anyway."

"Then, what _would_ you choose if it were you, Kuroo?" Bokuto asked with challenging eyes, completely aware of Kuroo's status as one of the college prep students in Nekoma High. The question slightly put Kuroo in a daze as he put one hand on his hip and another on his chin, humming calmly.

Kuroo's eyes went down to the ground then to the sides to meet Bokuto's. "You know, honestly, I'm not a fan of reading novels. They're too deep; I can't even see them anymore."

"Then what was that thinking pose for!? And don't you read poetry books? Those are _way_ deeper than novels!" Bokuto argued. Kuroo just smirked at him annoyingly while Tsukishima watched the dumb ordeal.

"But seriously, it's a common belief that Alice has been living the stuff of her nightmares in real life, and that doesn't sound too fun to write about. There are also signs of substance abuse and eating disorders. It's just sad. It's like posting something in social media and being the only one to react to your own post because only you get to experience it." Kuroo waved his hand in front of his face in disapproval. "It's honestly really disturbing to think about once you actually start writing a report about it."

"Hey, hey, hey! You're so deep; I can't even see you anymore! Right back at you, Kuroo!" Bokuto smacked a hand against Kuroo's back, and Kuroo remembered that being friends with a power spiker meant handprint-shaped bruises. That was definitely going to leave a mark. "I'm even amazed that you know so much about the origin of fairytales!"

Tsukishima, in belief that the seniors have finally forgotten about him and his opinion, decided to walk ahead of them. "Hey, Tsukki! Wait for us! You still haven't blocked for me individually yet! At least block for me before you pack up!" Bokuto quickly ran to catch up to the blonde, ignorant of how Tsukishima just wanted to achieve his personal space for once while on this trip.

Kuroo stood on the same spot as he watched his two companions walk farther.

He sighed, thoughts going off to a certain person. "Have you met him yet?" Glancing up at the sky, Kuroo smirked and shrugged his shoulders before following trail. "Hey, Tsukki! Let me help you shut the owl up!"

* * *

Her head was in between her two hands as she grasped her hair, almost pulling out all the strands in frustration. This was the third night she couldn't get a wink of sleep, and even if she did, all she would get were nightmares; manifestations of what she perceived to be the real world. She only had a few hours left before the school week starts. As much as she loved procrastinating, she didn't want her feelings to get all over the place. She'd rather not have feelings at all.

And only a few hours left and she _still_ hasn't started the book report.

 _[To: Jirururu]_

 _I know you're still awake, so stop trying to sleep and can you please search something for me? I just need to know the origin behind Peter Pan._

 _[To: Maro-chan]_

… _I can't believe you're making me read something that creepy at midnight. While I'm alone in my room with only my phone as the source of light._

 _[To: Jirururu]_

 _HOW IS THAT CREEPY? IT'S LITERALLY A SAD STORY?_

Mashumaro stood up from her bed after arguing with herself in her mind. Grabbing the laptop from the desk, she booted it and went to work. She had never really been the emotional type – it was Hirari's job to feel all emotions for the both of them – but that was only because she was never good at expressing herself.

But maybe through writing, she could if she actually tried. With no books as reference and no internet connection, she dug in deep through the corners of her mind, remembering every story and every meaning she could before she could create a masterpiece of her own. She couldn't sleep, but she isn't going to waste her time getting eaten up by her thoughts again.

Times like these, she knew she _shouldn't_ have come to Shiratorizawa. At least she wasn't there anymore and that's what matters.

She wondered if she could face the guidance counselor tomorrow after so many days of trying to escape. The dark circles around her eyes seemed to be getting harder to hide as the days go by. Suddenly, she stopped typing, her mind catching the idea of a certain classmate. She had been sitting behind him for a few days now and they have yet to talk.

Her face flushed. How was she going to face him tomorrow after the incident at the library? That was probably the worst impression she gave off to someone!

She stopped typing, letting out a loud groan. Now she has to avoid _both_ the freckled boy _and_ the tall bespectacled guy now, and the latter will be even harder considering that he sits right in front of her in class. Mashumaro was now definitely sure that she'll never be able to sleep at this rate. Cursing in a mix of Japanese and English under her breath, she lied flat down on her bed hugging a pillow to her face while she screamed.

It was then that her phone vibrated once again that she sat up and threw the pillow to the side to check what was up when her phone vibrated for a second time. "… Not too excited to text me, are we?" She mumbled teasingly to no one in particular while she unlocked her phone screen.

[ _From: Senpai]_

 _Check your email. Sent you a pdf of Peter Pan I managed to force Kenma to find. Knock yourself out and go to sleep, it's 1am. I know you can't sleep and it's hard, but I will try to help you in the few ways that I can._

Her eyes went wide to the size of saucers. How did he know about that? And just as if he has already expected her reaction, the next message appeared.

 _[From: Senpai]_

 _I heard from Tsukki. It seems he has never even heard about you lmao try talking to him sometime like I said. And good luck with the book report, kiddo_

She was definitely going to die tomorrow.

Feeling a bit of energy to keep herself up before the few hours of sleep (if she could ever get any tonight) she was _dying_ to get, she opened her email to browse through the countless ad mails from various websites she had signed up for. Feeling relieved and a bit embarrassed to receive help from a senior, she battled herself in her mind whether or not she should still see the guidance counselor.

But then again, maybe she could still handle one more day by herself.

* * *

There was no way she could handle the day by herself now.

She woke up late, took a quick shower, and didn't bother to comb her hair or fix her disheveled uniform before running off frantically towards the direction of the school. Arriving just in time for homeroom was normal for her – and sometimes, she even skipped homeroom – and ignoring her classmates was a norm (except when they did projects together) because she hated everyone with the exception of Hirari.

But there was a certain book on her desk today.

Her pupils dilated, glancing slightly at the male sitting in front said desk, headphones on his ears while he blasted his music to deafen his surroundings. His chin rested on his hand; his eyes closed. He didn't once recognize her presence behind him nor did he turn around to at least greet her. Why would he? They were strangers. She chewed her bottom lip before sitting down and like always, they both pretended that nothing happened.

That was until their homeroom teacher arrived. Tsukishima took off his headphones, his hand digging into his bag for a pen and notebook.

"Kaji-san, you are needed in the guidance office."

She bit down her lip so hard, she could have sworn she tasted blood. She got that she was needed, but having to announce that to the whole class only induced her classmates into the latest trend and gossip that she was probably in trouble or secretly a delinquent. They did not know anything and she doesn't plan to be honest to anyone anytime soon.

Moving her chair backward, she strutted towards the door while silently wishing that everyone would stop staring at her as if she was charged for murder.

Tsukishima looked behind him subtly. The book was still on the table, untouched.


	11. Ch 10 Let's Talk About That Boy

It was just another day for Ishikawa Hana. The morning starts, her husband makes breakfast for all of them, Hirari leaves for school, her eldest Haine takes Gunther out for a walk at 10:00AM, her son Hatori would leave soon for work and she would sometimes be the last to leave the house once everything is tidy and in order. Normally, she would leave at about the same time as Hirari when duty calls.

Sometimes, Hatori would leave later than her. On other occasions, Hikaru, her other son who had been residing in the city for his job, would come home to visit or stay for a few days before going back to Tokyo. Ishikawa Hana would sometimes wake up in a fantastic mood, other times the stress of getting older each day would get to her and she would feel cranky.

She was getting old.

Today, she woke up in a fantastic mood, which was a good thing for all of them. It was also one of the few days that she leaves the house after everyone else, but there was one constant habit she picked up every day since they moved into the lot.

She always takes her time to give her neighbor's house a glance. The neighbors were always quiet and she rarely sees the mother of the household. They would sometimes give each other a small wave for courtesy whenever they manage to catch each other's eyes, but that was just it.

Most days, however, when she gets out of the house early to water the plants or do her gardening, she would spot the neighbor's son leaving extra early in the morning to jog his way to school. She wondered if her daughter has made friends with him, seeing as they almost always leave the house at the same time every morning. The boy was frequently seen alone and Hana would often see him even on weekends, as well, coming back home late at night to an empty home.

One day, she decided to ask over dinner.

"So, about that boy next door… do you know his name?"

Hirari choked on the piece of meat she had just popped into her mouth. She violently pounded her fist against her chest, desperate for air, while her jerk of a brother Hatori grinned teasingly at his dying sister. Their father hurriedly poured some water into a glass and handed it over for his youngest daughter to drink. Hirari snatched the glass of water from the table, accidentally spilling some of its contents when she gulped it all down in one go.

"I'm sorry, why are we talking about this over dinner?" Hirari replied, wary of the disturbingly calm smile on her mother's face.

"Well, every time I see that boy, he's always just eating sandwiches upon leaving the house and, sometimes, pork buns on his way home. I thought he might not be eating well." The mother of the household casually poured soup into all of the bowls on the table as she spoke. Haine, her eldest daughter, scoffed in return.

"He looks healthy as he is, in my opinion." Haine commented, stealing a piece of barbecue from Hatori's plate despite his protests.

"Hirari knows him, for sure. They're in the same school." Hatori narrowed his eyes deviously at his little sister, and Hirari so badly wanted to punch him from across the table.

Hirari's eyes were glued to her plate while she forked her food over and over again in anxiety. A loud cough from beside her made her flinch slightly, refusing to look at the whoever made the sound. "Well, why don't you invite him for dinner next time? He is usually home alone, right?" Her dad, the person beside her, was _strangely_ okay about all of this and that only made the situation scarier. Hirari had already lost her appetite.

She looked up from her plate, feeling disturbed from the topic they chose for their gathering. "Woah, woah, woah, wait. I don't know him personally. He's probably not good with social interactions, I mean, he is often alone and he probably won't feel too comfortable having dinner with total strangers." She defended, taken aback by how her whole family fixated their attention to her when she spoke. "Besides, it's been almost three months and we're only talking about this _now_?"

"That's exactly why I asked. It's been three months, yet I don't see any changes in the boy's lonely routine. Perhaps no one cooks for him at home?" Her mother was incredibly scary and overwhelmingly empathetic when she's in a good mood, Hirari could not decide which of her two moods was better. In any way, why was her dad okay with this? There was no way he was going to allow her to be friends with a boy!

Hatori stood up from the table, taking his empty plate with him to the sink. "I'm off to bed. Good luck, little rascal." He fluffed up Hirari's hair to her annoyance when he passed by her chair. Haine was now sorting the meat on her plate, planning to share some to Gunther before she goes to bed. "I'm sure he's healthy, though. I mean, he seems very athletic and fit for his age." She commented, making Hirari almost thank her for the save, until she followed up with another statement. "But then again, it must be pretty lonely eating alone."

"H-He's used to it!" Hirari was now blatantly staring at her sister, silently pleading for help. Haine did not even look at her. The last male on the table chuckled lightly; every sound from him only adds up to the pressure that Hirari was feeling. "Well, then, why don't you try inviting him over sometime, like I said?"

Hirari wasn't sure how to tell her parents that even if it wasn't a big deal, she'd still get hurt if she was ever rejected.

"If he refuses, then that's okay. The boy must have been used to being independent." Hana joined in the persuasion party. "Besides, at least we tried to get along with our neighbors, right?"

Hirari forced herself to finish her dinner. It's not like she hated him; far from it, actually. She just didn't know how to do the mission and she knew that her mother's only going to keep bugging her for it for the rest of her life. Dinner ended after an hour, with Hirari bolting quickly into her room to bury her face in her pillows, screaming.

* * *

Mashumaro was laughing at her.

It was a normal reaction, but this did not solve anything at all. "I know how crazy it sounds! But you have to help me!" Hirari couldn't believe she was pleading desperately even with the knowledge that Mashumaro would most likely just do something that will just get them both into trouble if she ever agreed to help.

"I didn't even have to do anything this time. You brought this upon yourself." Mashumaro reminded Hirari, the latter feeling even more offended than she already was. "Can't you say anything more comforting?" She complained to the queen of trolls, and with that, Mashumaro let out a loud exhale from a good laugh.

The two girls were sitting outside the guidance counselor's office, away from anyone who could hear their conversation. It was a good spot, even though Mashumaro actually seethed having to go there. "Dude, you don't even have to do anything else besides knocking at his door. You can even go to their volleyball practice every morning or afternoon."

"Okay, no. Not going to happen. Never will go to that gym."

"Fine, then, do the first option."

"No!"

Mashumaro sighed. She knew that the more she spoke, the more they'll be running around in circles in their roundabout conversation. She pursed her lips in thought, when the door to the office opened. "Kaji-san?" An adult woman called out, gesturing for Mashumaro to come inside. The younger girl stood up to walk towards the door, glancing back at Hirari for the last time. "You better decide fast, though. It's not like he's going to be the one to make the first move."

* * *

"We have to make the first move!"

That was what came up to this moment. Morning practice was basically just a short meeting for the next day, since the school requested for all clubs to cancel afternoon practice for the general campus cleaning. Kageyama _was_ going to find another place to practice – volleyball was his whole life and he's not going to miss out on a day – but was unfortunately dragged against his will to – _surprise_ – Yachi's classroom

Except they didn't come here to hang out with Yachi. Even Yachi, herself, panicked when she saw the boys outside.

"Seriously, Kageyama, you're literally only going to ask about her name." Tanaka said, while he and Nishinoya were forcefully pushing Kageyama towards the classroom. Hinata stood there at the side, snickering to himself while Yamaguchi and Tsukishima just happened to pass by the commotion in the first-year corridor, stopping to see what was going on.

The other students gave the volleyball club judging looks as they walked by, with Kageyama trying so hard to keep his feet to where he was standing.

Meanwhile, Yachi went out of her room, as if saving Kageyama from further shame. "Um… she's sort of not here right now. And if you really want to know her name, I can just tell y—"

"NO!" Nishinoya and Tanaka yelled in unison, scaring Yachi back into the classroom. "Why are you yelling at her?" Tsukishima questioned with one eyebrow raised up. Yamaguchi immediately went to Yachi's spot, bowing apologetically for the troubles the second-years have been causing lately.

"A man's pride is at stake here!" Nishinoya explained loudly. "Kageyama must know how to deal with his manly problems alone!" Tanaka followed after. "Then why are you here?" Tsukishima asked again, while Hinata ran to Kageyama's side like the usual voice of reason he was.

"I think it's kind of rude that you don't want to ask for her name, you know. She was nice enough to you for the past few times you interacted." Hinata stood in front of Kageyama, only pissing off the setter even more. Kageyama scowled, his eyebrows meeting in the middle to showcase his expressive anger on having to deal with Hinata's reasoning. He walked away from his team, facing the wall of the classroom and out of ear's reach.

Yamaguchi stepped toward the rest of the boys, putting on a brave face but failing to look braver than he intended. "Honestly, though, I think we should lay off. This is Kageyama's choice to make. It doesn't seem like he appreciates being rushed into making friends with his neighbor."

Placing his arms on his hips, Tanaka looked at Nishinoya thoughtfully. "Well, he has a point, Noya-san. Although I think Kageyama's being a bit too obvious with his current frustration."

Hinata frowned, his head turning towards Kageyama, who still had his back turned towards them and his body facing the wall of the classroom as in deep in concentration. "Yeah, he was being pretty obvious. It's like, every time I try mention his neighbor, he just gets angry with no explanation!"

"That's because you're a simpleton and you don't get it at all." Tsukishima stated, walking off ahead of them while ignoring their protesting growls. "I'll be going ahead, Yamaguchi." He last said before completely leaving the scene. "W-What was that for!?" Hinata eventually complained.

"I hate to say this, but really, guys. What Tsukki is saying is that it's not something we should meddle with. From the start, we all knew that Kageyama has some issues when it comes to meeting new people." Yamaguchi explained. "Right, Yacchan?"

"Eh?" Yachi defensively held her hands in front of her quickly; alerted when all four boys looked at her while she stood behind Yamaguchi. She looked at the floor, rubbing a hand sheepishly at the back of her head. "W-Well, I wouldn't want anyone to rush me into something I've only been starting to sort out myself, as well… I mean, Shimizu-senpai let me take my time into deciding whether I would join the volleyball team or not before."

A pout appeared on the orange-haired spiker's face. "S-So were you annoyed by me when I tried to talk you into it?"

"No! It's not like that! I wanted to do it, anyway. I guess I just needed encouragement. But that's just me! Kageyama may be a different case, you know, he and I are probably not the same." Yachi countered.

Nishinoya's eyes brightened up. "Well, we can't know for sure what Kageyama thinks about all of this. But you should at least know what the girl thinks, right?" Tanaka nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you've been friends for a while, right?"

"Come to think of it, I think I recalled seeing Ishikawa-san before when Kageyama went to this room for some tutoring for the exams." Hinata pointed out, looking up to recall the memory.

Yachi hesitated, critically thinking if it was her place to talk. "I don't really know anything about her inner feelings, but she is actually pretty shy and would definitely get scared if she ever, um, sees all of us here waiting for her."

"So, it's all good? We all agree to just let them do their thing at their own pace?" Yamaguchi concluded, but before he could even receive a reply, Hinata gasped right beside him. "I-Is that her coming?" They all turned their heads to the direction.

"Everybody, act natural!"

In the end, they all looked _incredibly_ suspicious and eye-catching for every single student that passed by. Kageyama, while still far from the others, had his fists clenched and looking angry at the wall for no reason. Yachi was peeking from the doorway to her classroom, awkwardly trying to act as if she was never a part of the conversation. Nishinoya had his arms crossed against his chest, staring at Kageyama. Tanaka mirrored the exact same pose, both of them giving off an intense aura from where they stood. Hinata, lacking the time to think up of an idea, ended up copying his seniors while Yamaguchi also did the same because it was too late to think of anything else.

In the end, there were four boys with arms crossed against their chests, standing in a line in front of the classroom, one boy facing the wall of the classroom while a girl stood not far from the last boy with her back against the doorframe. For some reason, Yachi felt déjà vu creep into her spine.

Hirari stopped in her tracks; a completely unexplainable reaction printed on her face upon entering the scene. She slowly walked towards Yachi, slightly bothered that Kageyama was not _breathing_ when she passed by him. "I-Is it just me or…?" Hirari refused to look back, eyes completely boring holes into Yachi's own nervous ones.

"W-We're fine." Yachi reassured, almost convincing Hirari. All of the sudden, upon seeing Yachi's adorable facial reaction, Hirari loosened up, hands flying up to her mouth.

Kageyama regretted even looking at her from the corner of his eye. She was giggling.

To everyone's utter shock, the setter banged his head against the wall, face flushed and lips curved into a trembling scowl. He stayed like that for a few seconds, Hirari and Yachi both clinging into each other for dear life at his side, before he snapped his head towards them.

All of them reacted violently upon seeing the intensity of Kageyama's gaze. Hinata and Yamaguchi shrieked; Tanaka and Nishinoya's eyes widened; the two girls hugged each other tightly. Kageyama looked down at his feet, opening his mouth slightly.

Hirari couldn't even hear what he was saying. He opened his mouth again, trying to speak a little louder. All Hirari could make up was _'name'_ and nothing else.

Kageyama gritted his teeth, spinning on his heels and stomping off back to his classroom. "Hey, Kageyama, wait!" Hinata ran after the setter hurriedly.

Hirari watched his figure down the hallway with wide eyes and lips parted slightly.

* * *

All day, all Hirari ever thought was how to get home and convince her parents that Kageyama Tobio was not interested on having dinner with them.

Of course, she plotted ways to say it without making her whole family hate the neighbor's kid.

The school day ended and she knew she was going to have to deal with Art Club first. She only had a few hours left before she could come home and hopefully convince her parents that she wasn't friends with this guy and he was a healthy, happy boy.

He's in the volleyball club, why wouldn't he be healthy?

He seemed pretty fit, as well.

Why does she know that?

She slapped her hands on her cheek, almost scaring her seniors in the clubroom. The art raffle is drawing near and they are currently in the middle of drawing drafts for the campaign posters and sample works. This is how their club received donations, after all. It was a shame that she didn't get to convince Yachi to join with her, but the latter seemed to be having a great time in the volleyball club.

Ah, the volleyball club.

Why does everything she thinks about always have to end up with her thinking about the volleyball club?

She stared long at the empty canvas, only realizing now that she had no idea what to draw. Not when her mind is preoccupied by worry. The fact that Kageyama was right in front of her classroom earlier, unbreathing, was worse enough. What more now that she witnessed him almost break his own skull right in front of her? Not only that, he had bodyguards with him!

"… Ishikawa, you do realize you never finish your art every day, right?"

Hirari turned around, yelping when the voice of their club advisor interrupted her from her daydreaming. It was one thing to get yelled at just because the art block she had been experiencing has been hindering her work, but it was another thing when their advisor actually, _sternly_ , makes a point.

And yes, these days, Hirari admitted that she never finishes _anything._

Was it because of her current focus on Math so she could pursue it for college? Maybe it's because of her parents fighting more than usual? Her jerk brother bullying her every day? Was it the food? Dinner? The meatballs tasted good last night, though.

"I. Shi. Ka. Wa." Once again, she looked up at her advisor, fear evident in her eyes when she realized she had just ignored the teacher. Mentally preparing herself for another round of scolding – their advisor is pretty intense when it comes to slacking off on the job – she dwelled deep into disbelief when the older woman sighed calmly. It was beyond Hirari's comprehension.

"… Try to find the reason for your distractions and turn that into art inspiration instead of forcing your mind to invent a muse." The woman cleared her throat before leaving, and Hirari wondered if she secretly took anger management sessions because that never happened before. And the 40-year-old was single since birth, too.

With the deep breath, Hirari just drew scribbles and sketches of a human head while she let her thoughts do the 'muse' thing for her. She was never really good at background details or architecture, but she was proud of herself for being good at faces.

Faces.

… _What the hell._

 _Who is this!?_

It wasn't even a face, but Hirari was stunned, flinching as if her fingers had just touched a hot object. (In fact, she actually did, because the object of her sketch was ho-)

It was the back of someone's head.

His head.

 _Shit. I'm ruined._

* * *

Kageyama wanted to throw himself out into the open sea now.

He never really understood what Nishinoya and Tanaka meant when they said what they said during practice. In the middle of a rally. The ball hit Kageyama in the face because he was distracted.

He was actually distracted in the middle of playing _volleyball._

"You know what, man? You actually suck."

And Nishinoya just _had_ to say that right after he rolled over behind Kageyama to receive a ball that was spiked from the other side. Kageyama, who was still focused on the practice match amongst themselves, turned towards Nishinoya with dangerous eyes. He was about to snap when Tsukishima spoke from in front of him, a net separating them.

"He's not talking about volleyball, King. Don't try to challenge him with that face."

 _WHAT FACE?_

The ball hit Kageyama square in the face when he failed to do a set-up. Hinata was already up in the air in the position of a spike, but was even shaken when there was no ball to spike at all. He dropped to the ground, blinking and processing what had just happened.

Everyone who happened to see the event had their mouths open. Kageyama just _missed_ a set-up, yet he wasn't even yelling at Nishinoya.

"… Nishinoya-san, what." It wasn't even a question anymore. Even Kageyama couldn't process what happened to him at that moment. He was sure that Nishinoya distracted him with his words, but even so, he _missed_ a set-up and that never happened before no matter how rattled or frustrated he was. He wasn't even frustrated just then.

Nishinoya stood up straight, confidently looking back into Kageyama's dangerous gaze. "You suck at trying to keep your emotions in check. I mean, you probably didn't notice that Tsukishima had been doing feints the _whole_ time, forcing me to always do a diving receive, Hinata couldn't score because Daichi-san kept receiving his spikes, and well… you haven't even tossed to Ryu and now look at him." He gestured towards Tanaka with his right thumb, while his left hand landed on his hip.

Tanaka stood near the back line and only then did Kageyama realize that he couldn't spike because all he ever did for the past one hour and thirty minutes was receive.

And Kageyama didn't do anything about any of _those_! All he did was set to _Hinata_ and _only Hinata!_

Not to mention, Hinata couldn't even get one spike through!

This sucks. _He_ sucks.

"Kageyama, don't mind!" Hinata only pissed him off even more and they started bickering like they always did.

* * *

It was just another day for Ishikawa Hana. The morning starts, her husband makes breakfast for all of them, Hirari leaves for school, her eldest Haine takes Gunther out for a walk at 10:00AM, her son Hatori would leave soon for work and she would sometimes be the last to leave the house once everything is tidy and in order. Normally, she would leave at about the same time as Hirari when duty calls.

Today, she was going to leave the house early. As she walked towards the door, she felt a tug on her sleeve. She looked back to see her youngest daughter tugging her sleeve, her other index finger pressed against her lips. They both looked out the window discreetly, finding a certain young boy from the other side of the fence staring at his mailbox.

He inserted his hand inside, taking out a cute _bento_ box. He seemed to look appalled, almost worried that he might have received another wrong delivery.

"At least he gets cooked meal today. Don't take it the wrong way. You were the one worried about him, I mean, he looks fine, Mom. Not that kind of 'fine', but look at him, he's healthy and happy and you don't have to worry about someone we barely even know, but at least he eats a good meal today. We don't have to invite him for dinner, right?" Hirari defensively stated.

Smiling, her mom seemed to be in a good mood today, as well. "I haven't even said anything yet."

* * *

She wasn't actually fond of keeping in touch with _anyone_ other than Hirari. Frankly speaking, in the list of important people in her life, she only actually cared about her only friend since middle school.

That or she always had trust issues whenever Kuroo Tetsurou of the Nekoma High Boys' Volleyball Club would contact her out of nowhere. They weren't particularly close and she wouldn't call him a friend. He was just a senior she happened to meet by chance during her stay in Tokyo. The only reason he stuck around was because she reminded him of Kenma.

" _I didn't exactly come here to make friends, I'm sorry."_

" _You're not exactly here to get into a scholarship program, as well, in my observation."_

"… _What?"_

" _If you were, why are you hiding from the dean just thirty minutes before the exam starts?"_

She just happened to meet him, accidentally just finding him – or vice versa - as soon as she got out of Nekoma's dean's office and on her way to somewhere the school staff wouldn't find her. She happened to meet him on that day she decided to transfer to Nekoma from the far-away Shiratorizawa, because she grew up in the city and wanted to stay there. He was nothing more than someone who happened to know her issues, all because he was observant and he was cunning and he was the one who told her stories about Karasuno.

But she was still wary of him, despite him being her senior for two months. He readily took her under his wing like some adopted daughter – he mentioned that he dealt with stoic _children_ a lot that her uninterested self was something he was used to – and she would often just hear stories from him.

 _[To: Senpai]_

 _He found me._


	12. Ch 11 Her

"That's because you're a simpleton and you don't get it at all." Tsukishima stated, walking off ahead of them while ignoring their protesting growls. "I'll be going ahead, Yamaguchi." He last said before completely leaving the scene.

He didn't really have time to waste, dealing with how the King was going to deal with girls, and possibly, a potential crush. While it wasn't directly implied – and Kageyama probably only wanted to make a friend outside volleyball – this was just outrageous. Not that Tsukishima was in any place to talk, since he grew up only having Yamaguchi as a permanent friend, after all.

From the East Wing where Tsukishima's classroom was located, it was a pain for him to walk through the hallways towards the stairs, which were positioned in between the West and East Wings of the school. It was just a few minutes after homeroom period and he didn't want to stick around in the classroom too much, so he and Yamaguchi decided to grab a light drink.

Until the other boy got himself kidnapped – willingly – by the troublemakers in front of Class 1-5.

He was nearing the staircase, his eyes darting towards the West Wing in a brief moment. That was where the offices are. His hands were already on the railings of the staircase, ready to take a step down when he spotted the movement of a door open at the corner of his eye. While not particularly interested, he still stopped for a second just to see who was about to come out of it.

He stopped for more than one second.

Yeah, he wasn't imagining it. The dark circles around her eyes are getting worse.

Was she getting enough sleep?

It was just a theory but Tsukishima tried to make sense why a 15 or 16-year-old in the college prep class would choose a common novel for a project handled by a terror teacher who was never fond with fiction fairytales. Maybe she was smart enough to get her own way with it or she just didn't know the difficult ones such as Leo Tolstoy and the like. Maybe she wasn't a book person. He didn't care – he really didn't.

Then why wasn't she getting enough sleep? She skips homeroom at least once a week and barely arrives for the rest of the days.

Shrugging his shoulders, he proceeded on his own merry way.

* * *

She didn't want to join a club.

Even though that was what the guidance counselor told her to help keep her mind away from haunting thoughts, she still didn't want to join a club. What benefit would it do her?

She didn't want to waste her whole life wishing for the sun to just stop rising, but she also didn't want to make an effort doing something that she probably will never ever commit to. She'll just quit in the end or feel troubled. She might also have to make excuses not to attend every meeting and, _damn_ , she was tired of making up excuses.

Kuroo Tetsurou found her hiding around Nekoma High. It was mid-year. It wasn't the ideal time to be transferring schools or getting scholarships. The only way for her to remain in Tokyo was for her to pass the exam, but alas, she backed out in the end.

But she also did not want to go back to Shiratorizawa. The pressure destroyed her even more than she already was. She tried going to school normally – she really did. The dean had high expectations of her, and yet she came crashing down into a sea of uncertainty because the pressure was too much. She would fail her classes on purpose, not attending school for an entire week. Sometimes, two.

Until she was _finally_ given a choice. The only way for her to stay was for her to pass a scholarship exam. And the only option to go back to Tokyo, her home and birthplace, was to do that, as well. The advantage of being in Shiratorizawa was that it becomes easy to transfer to the schools in the big city.

Yet, she backed out.

She just didn't want to attend school anymore. There was nothing to look forward to.

"You know, you remind me of Kenma. I might introduce you to him one day, if you plan to stay."

Approximately eighteen minutes left before the exam takes place in the designated classrooms, and here she was, head hung low and annoyed at the looming presence sitting beside her on the floor behind a corner in the school library. Libraries were quiet in Tokyo, she knew. People relied on the internet more than they did books these days.

She didn't know who Kenma was and how this old guy found her in a seemingly person-less space on-campus. She didn't even know that this guy happened to be the captain of the school's volleyball team. "He would often hide in places where people could not find him, too. I was just out looking for him, but hey, I can't believe I found a tiny little lady here." Oh, so that's how he found her.

Not giving any sign that she would respond properly, she hugged her knees close to her body, wary of what the guy was going to do to her. Call it paranoia, but she can never be too sure. "So what school are you from?" Ah, and he asks a question. Even though she clearly told him that she wasn't there to make friends, the man was persistent.

"Shiratorizawa from the Miyagi prefecture."

"Oh, really?"

She didn't know if he was mocking her or not, but she didn't complain because she uses the same reaction towards people all the time. They can never tell whether she was joking, mocking them, or legitimately in awe.

The guy let out a low chuckle.

"Well, that sure reminds me of Karasuno."

 _Karasuno?_

That caught her attention. Her friend attended the school, after all. "What about Karasuno?"

"Ah, she speaks!" The guy looked a little too happy for her liking. It creeped her out. "You see, I am actually the captain of this school's volleyball team and we are sort of rivals with the crows. Karasuno's own volleyball club is pretty interesting. There is this shrimpy middle blocker that appears to be invincible when that talented setter is around. Not to mention, the captain and the libero's solid receives. Their power spikers were incredible, as well."

Mashumaro the homebody, with her little knowledge on sports, only understood a handful of the terms used. She thought he would at least tell her something about the school's academic level, but here he was, telling her stories about people she didn't know and wasn't interested in.

Her only goal was to graduate, after all. Just that was enough and she hoped she could survive until then. Every day was getting a little hard for her, too.

"I'm a middle blocker." The guy talked again. "I can spike balls into the enemy's court, but I specialize in blocking the attacks." She wasn't really interested. "I know you're not interested, but I'm telling you this because Karasuno's middle blocker is my student and is as uninterested as you in the beginning." Can he read minds or something?

She got caught up, thinking of what to say. It seems to him that she must be appearing rude and completely transparent of her disinterest in his company. "What's his name?" Was the only thing she could say and she mentally slapped herself for such a generic question.

"Oh, you finally asked me a question." Just answer it. "He's a clever guy. Glasses and all. He didn't have much self-esteem to begin with, but he got better when he actually tried." He didn't answer it. "You'll probably get along, too." He still didn't answer it.

She had only ten minutes to decide whether she should make a run for her scheduled exam or cower in this little corner forever and feel sorry for herself.

Suddenly, the man stood up, almost striking fear in her when she realized how actually tall he was. He wasn't exactly handsome, but he did look attractive enough to catch her attention when she finally took in the view of his whole body. "If you ever change your mind about the exam, you should just go to Karasuno, then. Those guys are the very evidence that the school atmosphere is healthy and it probably won't be stressful for you, too. You might even meet my pupil."

Her eyes widened, silently questioning how this stranger knew that she wasn't exactly _healthy,_ apart from the fact that she, indeed, looked and was actually underweight and had dark circles around her eyes due to lack of sleep. She clutched down the medicine bottle to her chest—wait. The medicine bottle! He saw the melatonin supplements!

She smiled. "… How about you? What's your name?"

The guy smirked, and to her guess, was probably just teasing her the whole time. If he was sincerely there just to keep her company, she'd be okay with that, as well. "Kuroo Tetsurou. Third year."

"Great. I'm looking forward to hear from you again after I nail that exam, Kuroo-senpai."

* * *

"How come you didn't continue your transfer to Nekoma even when you passed their exam?"

"Because you're here in Karasuno."

Hirari wasn't sure how to make out of that reply. It was _disgustingly_ cheesy even for Mashumaro. _Especially_ for Mashumaro. The girl was, although a sweet friend, a troll and a douchebag combined. Hirari never really understood how her friend is only a wrecking force to deal with when she was with her.

"Dude, you don't just choose schools because your only friend is there. Besides, you're too independent. I'm not buying that reason." Hirari bit her lip, not expecting the statement to be colder than she planned it out to be. Mashumaro, however, was not offended at all. The only way to offend her was to invade her personal space and ask about her personal life at Friendship Level 0 because how dare they.

"Hmm… other than the fact that the students here have high well-being, I guess I just really… heard about it in a good way." They were walking to school together, which was a rare occurrence since Mashumaro never really wakes up early, and she wasn't in a bad mood this morning which made it even weirder. It's also impossible for her to have pulled an all-nighter, because that would only put her in the worst mood she could ever have.

Mashumaro didn't like the sunlight. Even she, herself, couldn't understand why. She was smart – she knows that the sunlight is one of the many factors in triggering the 'happy hormones' of the body, specifically, serotonin. And yet, it appears she has a scientifically broken body.

She actually is scientifically broken. She never had childhood trauma, was loved by her entire family, excelled in many things, and basically lived a normal life – except she was bad at social interactions and often labeled as 'rude' by many people – so why was she so… _lost?_

She would just joke about it, even so.

"But you know, I'll probably get bored and skip classes for a week soon. Even if it's Karasuno. I already started skipping meals." She laughed.

Hirari frowned.

* * *

They never talked. They never even touched or bumped into each other even though their seats were literally only inches apart, they see each other every day, and she still hadn't said a word of explanation to him as to why she was clearly being creepy in the library that day.

Not that he was looking for one, but still.

However, she was extremely fidgety these days. Tsukishima didn't think much about it at first, but then it was starting to get annoying. She would occasionally _slightly_ press her feet against the legs of his chair, as if she was stretching her legs from their usual cross position. Now, that wouldn't be a problem if Tsukishima wasn't feeling it whenever he would shift his weight on the seat and the chair would move because of the force of her feet.

She would also click her tongue multiple times. Sometimes, Tsukishima would look back at her, noticing that every time she was focusing hard on solving a Math problem or even just reading difficult English sentences, she would bite her thumb fingernails – thumbnails? – or worse, her whole thumb. With the matching clicking of the tongue, of course, and they never stop every day during every Math class.

She was bad at Math, too. He can't recall the number of times she got called and never really got to answer properly. However, she was incredible with the other subjects and English. Especially English. She is probably capable of talking in English for a _whole_ day and leaving everyone looking dumb just because she can.

Come to think of it, she actually _did_ that once. It was on a day when people were actually trying to talk to her, but got scared because she was talking in a foreign language so fluently that they did not want to look stupid in trying to keep up with her. No one bothered her after that.

She was a jerk. He didn't know which of them more of a jerk was, but she was a different kind of jerk. The kind who'd smile sweetly while saying something that no one could tell if it was sarcastic or genuine. Heck, there was even one occasion when a friend of hers – _was that Kageyama's neighbor_? – came to visit her and she would just torment her with weird joke and teasing, that not even the other girl could tell what she was trying to say.

One thing's for sure. The dark circles never shrunk.

Tsukishima wasn't exactly just observing her. He had a tendency to observe all the people around him, but only absorbs the essential information he needed. However, it is a different story when he gets _forced_ to absorb something unessential, such as when he shifted his weight on his chair, it moved again.

And so today, he turned his body to look at her.

She looked surprised.

He mirrored her expression.

He had never seen her up close before, and _god_ , those dark circles looked even more alarming at this distance. Sure, he had been this close to her in the library, but at eye level, this shocked him.

They both opened their mouths at the same time.

"Have you been sleeping well?"

"Have you read the book?"

Tsukishima blinked. She blinked twice. "Pardon me?" He spoke first, because she seemed to be waiting for him to.

"The book I dropped. Have you read it?" It was the most random question and an awful way to start a first conversation with someone she just run away from in their first meeting. "I haven't." He answered, expecting the girl to get dejected, but instead, she smiled. There were, indeed, creases in the corners of her eyes.

"I haven't either." She admittedly told him. The conversation just got weird and random, and to think that all he did was turn around so he could tell her to _stop. placing. her. feet. against. his. chair._

Then he froze. That wasn't what he just said, was it?

"What was your question again?" She asked. They both stared at each other with curious expressions exposed openly to each other. Tsukishima didn't have time to think if she even heard one word he said, but he wished she didn't. She seemed like an airhead. Smart, but air-headed and sleepless.

"… Please keep your feet away from my chair. It's uncomfortable."

"Oh… sorry."

And they both ignored each other for the rest of class like normal. He wondered if he should have just asked.

* * *

He didn't have to adjust his seat each time anymore.

He also didn't have to hear someone clicking their tongue in annoyance anymore.

The next few days, she had been _extremely_ quiet. Not that it was a bad thing – having her making some noise was one annoying thing, but not hearing anything from behind him is another annoying thing.

It felt like she was just staring at the back of his head, doing nothing, and the feeling was honestly terrifying. Moreover, he didn't know when it started. From the day he spoke to her, the bad habits gradually disappeared until there were none. It took him a while before he could gather the amount of fucks he gave to turn around again, expecting someone to be staring back at him.

No. Her head was hung down, hair covering her face, and her hand was being the only support to keep her from crashing her skull on her desk. He didn't know if she was asleep or just out of it. But it had been a few days, too. The school week was about to end, and she was going to end it like a zombie.

It was still none of his business, though. If it were Yachi, he'd probably do something since having a dysfunctional manager meant chaos for a team full of idiots. Plus, he at least cared for her to an extent, like he did to the rest of the team.

* * *

"About Maro-chan… has she been sleeping well?"

Hirari looked up from her desk when her mother entered the room to gather the empty bottles of soda and bags of chips from her room. As much as she was embarrassed to admit it, she had been binge-eating for a while due to stress.

"She doesn't really talk about it, but the last time she sent me a text message, it was at 3:00am." Hirari continued on with her homework, feeling a bit sleepy even at an early hour. Mashumaro had visited their home for tonight, which is why Hirari's parents must have noticed how exhausted she looked.

"And that's one hour before Kageyama-kun wakes up! Imagine how she would survive a club if she ever decided to join one."

The fact that Kageyama was _somehow_ brought into the conversation again scared Hirari even more than the fact that Mashumaro was probably low-key trying to kill her brain cells one-by-one by not sleeping at night.

How in the world did her mother even knew what time Kageyama wakes up? Was she just hypothetically assuming that he wakes up at 4:00AM because he always leaves at 5:30AM?

How did Hirari know that, as well? She decided to stop thinking.

Her mother went out of the room, smiling to herself.

* * *

He thought she had only skipped homeroom at the last day of the school week.

However, she skipped classes for the whole day.

Tsukishima didn't really care, but really. Even though she looked tired and hopeless the whole week, she still does her job well. She passed quizzes, talked to and teased people, ignored most of them, and basically, she was being the normal weird girl in the classroom.

No, he knew. He knew she wasn't doing well, even then. Yet, it was sudden. Although gradual – only he and her seatmate would notice, but apparently, she was a bit too cheerful when talking to her seatmate and it seemed like she was faking it but her seatmate never noticed – it was still sudden. She didn't seem like the type to skip classes, too.

She probably just got sick. A fever? Even though it never rained the whole week? Probably over fatigue?

She'll be better by next week, he thought.

* * *

Apparently, her sickness isn't the type to go away within just a few days.

He just wasn't paying enough attention to Kuroo before.

And he only remembered _now_ while researching for his Chemistry homework.

He overheard the Nekoma and Fukurodani captains talking last training camp, but he didn't really pay mind to it. It was unnecessary. He just happened to overhear it while on his way to the third gym, too. For some reason, it wasn't the sound of loud slams on the floor or Bokuto's trademark 'hey, hey hey!' that he first heard when he was walking into the gym.

It was, for a lack of better term, the sound of worry.

"She's depressed."

"If you're _that_ concerned about her, why didn't you just convince her to completely transfer in Nekoma?"

"Hey, that was her choice to make. Besides, I'm sure she'll love Karasuno. The countryside's much more peaceful than the dangerous streets in Tokyo, anyway."

Tsukishima was aware that Kuroo had always been the type to worry more for others than himself, even if those _others_ were complete strangers or simply acquaintances. He's the guy who worries about their coach not getting to experience the Battle at the Garbage Dump, for goodness' sake. He also went on his way to actually be nice about teaching the future opponent team. Overall, he was a great captain not just to his team, but to literally everyone he meets.

In any way, their conversation ended when Tsukishima stepped into the gym. Maybe they didn't want to tell him. Maybe he didn't want to know. Either way, none of them said another word about her that day.

And for once, at this moment while reviewing his science notes, Tsukishima thought the weekend to be a long one.

* * *

"I invited Kageyama-kun for dinner this weekend."

Hirari spat out the water she had just poured into her mouth violently. "You WHAT!?" She almost regretted raising her voice, a bit nervous if her mother would get mad at her for doing so. Instead, the older woman just smiled endearingly at her. Hirari was starting to question herself whether she'd want her mom to be in a good mood or a bad mood often.

"Mom, how come you _never_ tell me whenever you invite Maro-chan over and yet you are _now_ telling me that you invited someone you had never even met properly over for a weekend feast?"

"I just happened to stumble upon him because he somehow locked himself out of his house." The woman was cleaning the dishes, not even looking at how _horrified_ Hirari's face was while she placed each clean dish on top of one another. "I took the opportunity to lend him an unused card I had in my wallet so he could hack his way into the house. Then I dropped the question."

"Y-You're actually making it sound like that was a normal thing to say to someone you had just met. You're just like Maro-chan."

What was Hirari talking about? This was the same woman who randomly showed up at their doorstep one day, happily announcing that she picked a dog up from the streets on her way home and now they have a pet dog just because. It was no-brainer that she'd soon _actually_ invite Kageyama over just because she's in a horrifyingly good mood for the past week.

"Did he agree?" Hirari almost regretted asking, because she was now making it obvious that she actually _cared_ about his reaction.

Did she?

"He was too surprised to even answer and ended up stuttering, looking down at his feet. Such a sweet young boy." _Was this woman still her mom?_ "But I told him I would be expecting him. It's his call if he'd arrive or not."

Hirari tried to imagine him stuttering and being nervous, but couldn't. Until she remembered the day he purposely hit his head on the wall of her classroom and being a blushing mess.


End file.
